Rules for Making Antonyms with Examples

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Hello friends ! Today we are going to study about Rules for Making Antonyms with Examples. Many questions are asked in competitive examinations regarding Antonyms. So today we are going to tell you some rules for making antonyms.

Also providing a list of some important Antonyms. You should prepare them well. So let’s start today’s topic : What is Antonym and How to make Antonyms.

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What are Antonyms in English Grammar

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Definition of Antonyms : Antonym means – opposite word. The words that reveal or have exactly the opposite meaning are called Antonyms. i.e. Antonyms are words that give the opposite meaning to a word.

Some words may have more than one opposite word. Such as : Old can have two opposite words : New or Young.

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Rules for Making Antonyms in English Grammar

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How to make Antonyms / Rules and Usage – Antonyms : We are going to share with you some special rules for making antonyms. So that you have some ease in making Antonyms.

Rule : 1. Add Prefix to make antonyms :

Antonyms of many words can be made by adding Some prefixes such as un_, in_, im_, ir_, il_, dis_, mis_, and non_. etc. like :

By adding un_ as prefix :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Wise	Unwise	Pleasant	Unpleasant
2.	Important	Unimportant	Employment	Unemployment
3.	Educated	Uneducated	Able	Unable
4.	Known	Unknown	Fit	Unfit
5.	Popular	Unpopular	Authorised	Unauthorised

By adding in_ as prefix :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Correct	Incorrect	Equality	Inequality
2.	Decent	Indecent	Expensive	Inexpensive
3.	Definite	Indefinite	Effective	Ineffective
4.	Convenient	Inconvenient	Sufficient	Insufficient
5.	Justice	Injustice	Direct	Indirect

By adding im_ as prefix :

• Words that begin with “b”, “p” or “m”. The antonym can be formed by adding“im_” prefix before these words. like :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Balance	Imbalance	Pure	Impure
2.	Proper	Improper	Moral	Immoral

By adding ir_ as prefix :

Words that begin with “r”. The antonym can be formed by adding“ir_” prefix before these words. like :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Regular	Irregular	Relevant	Irrelevant
2.	Responsible	Irresponsible	Rational	Irrational

By adding il_ as prefix :

Words that begin with “l”. The antonym can be formed by adding“il_” prefix before these words. like :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Literate	Illiterate	Logical	Illogical
2.	Liberal	Illiberal	Legal	Illegal

By adding dis_ as prefix :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Allow	Disallow	Agree	Disagree
2.	Advantage	Disadvantage	Connect	Disconnect
3.	Honest	Dishonest	Loyal	Disloyal
4.	Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Qualify	Disqualify
5.	Belief	Disbelief	Like	Dislike

By adding mis_ as prefix :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Print	Misprint	Understand	Misunderstand
2.	Use	Misuse	Fortune	Misfortune
3.	Behave	Misbehave	Conduct	Misconduct
4.	Guide	Misguide	Place	Misplace
5.	Lead	Mislead	Calculate	Miscalculate

By adding Non_ as prefix :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Sense	Nonsense	Violence	Nonviolence
2.	Vegetarian	Nonvegetarian	Co-operation	Nonco-operation

Rule : 2. Add Suffix to make antonyms :

Adjectives that end with “ful” – suffix are replaced by “less” when making an antonym, such as :

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Useful	Useless	Harmful	Harmless
2.	Hopeful	Hopeless	Shameful	Shameless
3.	Cheerful	Cheerless	Thankful	Thankless
4.	Painful	Painless	Careful	Careless

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List of Some Important Antonyms

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Friends! Keeping the above important rules in mind, you can make Antonym to a large extent. But let me tell you that this rule is not enough for Antonym. There are many words that does not follow any rules. Therefore, we are providing you a list of some important antonyms, which will help you in the exam.

Start with “A”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Admit	Deny	Advance	Retreat
2.	Admire	Rebuke	Alive	Dead
3.	Ascend	Descend	Arrival	Departure

Start with “B”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Bless	Curse	Borrow	Lend
2.	Bold	Timid	Build	Demolish

Start with “C”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Certain	Uncertain / Doubtful	Cheap	Costly
2.	Cheerful	Gloomy	Cruel	Kind

Start with “D”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Duty	Right	Doubt	Surety
2.	Destroy	Create	Decrease	Increase

Start with “E”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Exterior	Interior	External	Internal
2.	Entrance	Exit	Excess	Deficiency

Start with “F”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Fast	Slow	Forgive	Punish
2.	Failure	Success	Fortunate	Unfortunate

Start with “G”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Good	Bad	Guilty	Innocent
2.	Generous	Selfish	Gaint	Dwarf

Start with “H”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Heavy	Light	Huge	Tiny
2.	Hollow	Solid	Humble	Proud

Start with “I”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Insecure	Safe	Inferiour	Superior
2.	Increase	Decrease	Impure	Pure

Start with “J”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Junior	Senior	Joint	Separate

Start with “K”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Known	Unknown	Kind	Cruel

Start with “L”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Light	Dark	Lost	Found
2.	Least	Most	Loosen	Tighten

Start with “M”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Motion	Rest	Melodious	Harsh
2.	Minority	Majority	Misery	Happiness

Start with “N”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Near	Far	Natural	Unnatural / Artificial
2.	Noise	Silence	Noisy	Quiet

Start with “O”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Oral	Written	Opaque	Transparent
2.	Often	Seldom	Optimistic	Pessimistic

Start with “P”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Possible	Impossible	Polite	Impolite / rude
2.	Perfect	Imperfect	Peace	War

Start with “Q”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Quarrel	Concord	Quiet	Noisy

Start with “R”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Real	Imaginary	Ready	Reluctant
2.	Rigid	Flexible	Repulsive	Charming

Start with “S”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Shy	Bold	Sweet	Sour
2.	Sharp	Blunt	Same	Different

Start with “T”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Trust	Betray	Thick	Thin
2.	Tragic	Comic	Truth	Lie

Start with “U”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Ugly	Beautiful	Unique	Common / Ordinary

Start with “V”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Vast	Tiny	Vacant	Full

Start with “W”

S.r.	Word	Antonym	Word	Antonym
1.	Wild	Tame	Warm	Cold
2.	Wise	Foolish	Worst	Best

Thus friends! Today we have learned about Rules for Making Antonyms with Examples. This is an important topic of English Grammar. Hopefully you have understood a lot about Antonyms.

There are a lot of Antonyms, but in today’s notes, we have tried to cover many important Antonyms. You must also keep the rules of Antonyms in mind, so that you can be successful in making correct Antonyms to a large extent.

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Read Also :

•  My Last Duchess Ferrara By Robert Browning

• The World is Too Much With Us By William Wordsworth

• Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard By Thomas Gray

• Go And Catch A Falling Star By John Donne

• London Poem By William Blake

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Many students make these mistakes. With your little effort you can bring good marks in the exam. Therefore, along with certain rules of Antonyms, you should keep Antonyms List in mind.

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