Words Endings (-nym) Definitions Quiz

Answer: acronym

NATO is an example of an acronym. It stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Since it is pronounced as a word, and not by simply stating the letters used, it is an acronym. It can also be called an initialism or acrostic, but these terms also apply to 'words' that are read out as the series of letters. An example of this is WHO, which stands for the World Health Organisation, but is pronounced by naming the letters one at a time.

Answer: antonym

Antonyms might define extremes as with scientific measurements and word relations. In this case, the adjective pairs would be used to describe objects whose qualities are opposites.

Answer: eponyms

Places can also be eponyms. Constantinople is eponymous, because it is named after a person, Constantine.

Answer: paronym

Paronymous words tend to be formed from roots of foreign words. Two words that come from the same root are paronyms. Both fool and folly come from the Old French word 'fol', meaning a madman.

Answer: pseudonym

The orthonym is an original name such as a birth name. A pseudonym is an assumed name which could be a pen name or stage name. Mark Twain is the pseudonym for the orthonym Samuel Clemens.

Answer: heteronym

Heteronyms are words with the same spelling, but different pronunciations and meanings. They can also be called heterophones. Some heteronym pairs are the same word with one instance of a verb definition and the other a noun meaning. An advocate may advocate their favorite cause. In the case of the word wind, it can be pronounced with either a short or long 'i' vowel.

Homonyms have the same spelling and the same pronunciation, but different meanings. An example would be left (meaning the opposite of right) and left (being the past tense of the verb to leave).

Answer: tautonym

Although botany does not allow for tautonyms in naming plants, nomenclature of animals allows for the same term to be used for both the genus and species. The word tautonym comes from the Greek word 'tauto', meaning the same.

Answer: toponym

Toponym is the English -nym word that refers to the name of a place. Toponyms on a map can be descriptive, associative, incidental, possessive, commemorative, commendatory, manufactured, mistaken or shift names. The word toponym can also be used to describe a word that is derived from a place name, such as the Panama hat.

Answer: cryptonym

Calling someone by a code name is sometimes used on CB radios. In writing this is called a cryptonym. Places and objects can also have code names. A code name example might be that of Chicago as the name used for Windows 95 during development.

Answer: synonyms

It is helpful to use synonyms when writing. You can know another word for the same meaning. Use these words to add variety to one's written script. Thesaurus books are a tool used to find these synonymous words. It is important to remember, however, that synonyms may not mean exactly the same thing, so you need to choose the one whose meaning best fits what you want to say.