Upper Primary School English Quiz - Vocabulary 21 - Synonyms 1 (Questions)

When Rohit Sharma scored 264 runs in the one-day international match between India and Sri Lanka recently, the newspapers reported the next day. If you had looked at the adjectives the reporters used in describing his performance you would have seen words such as incredible, exceptional, marvellous, superb, astonishing, astounding, awesome, breathtaking, fantastic, outrageous, phenomenal, remarkable, spectacular, terrific and unbelievable.

All these words have similar meanings. We could use any of the words and the reader or listener would get the import of what we are trying to say. Words like these that have similar meanings are called synonyms.

Synonyms have very subtle variations in meaning and one has the freedom to choose the word that best describes exactly what one wants to say or write.

[readmore]Now, the example that was given was for describing something positive and good. What if we were to say bad things? Say, if India lost to England badly what would the newspapers say? Probably that India’s performance was deplorable, feeble, heartbreaking, miserable, pitiful, poignant, sorry and woeful. Here again the words used convey the same meaning and these words too are synonyms.

English has a huge bank of words to choose from and it is possible to use a choice of words with similar meanings to describe exactly what you wish to convey.

Synonyms add to the beauty of the language and each writer or speaker has the liberty to choose his words without sacrificing the quality of information conveyed, but in fact increasing it. The quiz that follows exposes you to some interesting words and their many synonyms.