bear down on

Questions about bear down on

What is another word for bear down on?

It depends which bear down on you mean. In the sense “sail towards another vessel, of a ship”, the synonyms are bear down upon. Across all 2 senses there are 5 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of bear down on?

WordNet records no antonym for bear down on. Antonymy in WordNet is a relation between specific word forms rather than between concepts, so it is recorded only where lexicographers judged the pairing direct. An absence here means none was recorded, not that none can be imagined.

Why are the synonyms for bear down on split into groups?

Because bear down on carries 2 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for bear down on come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of bear down on

• Full entry for bear down onAll 2 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for bear down onWhether this word can be rhymed at all — it is not in the pronouncing dictionary.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.