Synonimie

Synonimie, in linguistics, refers to the semantic relation between words that share overlapping or identical meanings. In English, this relation is usually called synonymy. Synonyms can often substitute for one another without altering the core proposition of a sentence, but they are not always interchangeable in every context.

Absolute synonyms—words with exactly the same sense in all contexts—are rare. Most word pairs are near-synonyms, with subtle differences in nuance, connotation, formality, or typical collocations. For example, start and begin are largely interchangeable, but begin tends to be more formal, and start more common in everyday speech. Large and big overlap, but large is more common in technical or measured descriptions.

Synonymy is highly context-dependent. The choice of a synonym depends on tone, register (informal, neutral, formal), dialect, domain (everyday language vs. scientific writing), and the speaker’s intention. Synonyms may differ in pleasant or harsh associations, or in the typical collocations they form, which can affect fluency and naturalness.

In lexicography and natural language processing, identifying synonyms supports thesauri, paraphrase generation, information retrieval, and machine translation. It also helps discuss semantic networks like hypernyms and hyponyms, and distinguishes synonyms from related relations such as antonyms and polysemy. Studying synonymy sheds light on how languages preserve expressiveness and precision through flexible word choice.