Sinonimas

Sinonimas are words that share a similar or identical meaning with another word. In linguistics, a synonym is used to vary expression, adjust tone, or increase precision. Absolute synonyms—words with exactly the same meaning in all contexts—are rare; most synonym pairs are near-synonyms, differing in connotation, formality, or collocation. The choice among synonyms depends on context, audience, and the desired nuance.

Synonyms can be categorized by degree of similarity and usage. Near-synonyms have overlapping meanings but distinct associations or usage patterns. Regional or dialectal synonyms reflect differences in speech communities. Stylistic synonyms differ in formality or connotation, making one word more suitable for technical writing and another for everyday speech. Contextual factors such as collocations, idioms, and common phrases also influence which synonym is most appropriate.

Examples across languages illustrate these nuances. In English, big and large are closely related but not always interchangeable; begin and start share meaning but vary in formality. In Spanish, feliz and contento are related but carry different emotional intensities; in Portuguese, feliz and contente similarly convey happiness with subtle shade. Such distinctions also arise in translation and localization.

In lexicography and natural language processing, synonyms underpin thesauri, dictionaries, and paraphrase tools. Thesauri organize synonym sets to aid writers, while NLP techniques use synonym dictionaries to enhance search, text generation, and semantic understanding. Awareness of nuance and context is essential when selecting synonyms to maintain accuracy and style.

See also: Thesaurus, Antonym, Polysemy, Lexical semantics, WordNet. The term sinónimas or sinônimos reflects the same concept in Romance languages, but the English article above centers on the universal idea of synonyms.