d_;
whatever is displeasing is _bum_ or _awful_ or _a fright_.
Life is reflected, not as noble and complex, but as mean and meager. Out
of such stereotyped utterance only the general idea emerges. The precise
meaning is lazily or incompetently left to the hearer to imagine. The
precise meaning? There is none. A person who does not take the trouble to
speak clearly has not taken the trouble to think clearly.

But the master of synonyms expresses, instead of general, hazy,
commonplace conceptions, the subtlest shadings of thought and feeling. He
has so trained himself that he selects, it may be unconsciously, from a
throng of possible words. One word may be strong, another weak. One may be
broad, another narrow. One may present an alternative in meanings, another
permit no liberty of choice. One may be suggestive, another literal or
colorless. One may penetrate to the core of the idea, another strike only
in the environs. With these possibilities the master of synonyms reckons.
He must have the right word. He chooses it, not at haphazard, but in
conformity with a definite purpose.

For synonyms are not words that have the same meaning. They are words that
have similar meanings. They may be compared to circles that overlap but do
not coincide. Each embraces a common area, but each embraces also an area
peculiar to itself. Though many words cluster about a given idea, rarely
if ever are even two of these words entirely equivalent to each other. In
scope, in suggestion, in emotional nuance, in special usage, or what not,
is sure to lurk some denial of perfect correspondence. And of synonyms, so
of antonyms. Antonyms are words opposite in meaning; but the opposition,
for the same reasons as the likeness, is seldom or never absolute.

In your study of synonyms you will find most of the dictionaries
previously named of great help. You may also profitably consult the
following books of synonyms (heavy, scholastic works not suited for
ordinary use are omitted):

<Books of Plain Synonyms and Antonyms>

Edith B. Ordway: _Synonyms and Antonyms_. A compact, practical
volume, with antonyms (in italics for contrast) immediately following
synonyms.

Louis A. Flemming: _Putnam's Word Book_. A book of the ordinarily
used synonyms of words, with antonyms after some of them, and with lists
of associated words wherever these are likely to be useful.

Samuel Fallows: _100,000 Synonyms and Antonyms_. A handy little
volume, with usefu