Is there a synonym for the word synonym? Yes, there are two: polyonym and poecilonym, but they’re rarely seen except in collections of unusual words. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Synonyms for “Synonym””
Is there a synonym for synonym?
At least two.
At least two, yes.
One of them is pisillonym, which has an odd spelling.
It’s P-O-E-C-I-L-O-N-Y-M, which comes from a Greek word that means many-colored or varied.
Oh, nice.
And then the other one is polyonym, like poly and nim.
Polyonym.
Yeah, polyonym.
Which is kind of self-explanatory, right?
Yeah.
Many words, basically.
Right.
But neither one of them is all that common.
Right.
You usually see it in funny books about language or that kind of thing.
Or, you know, when people say, hey, did you know there’s a synonym for synonym?
Or on Twitter @wayword.
