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canker has 2 distinct synonyms spread across 2 of its 5 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
a fungal disease of woody plants that causes localized damage to the bark
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for canker come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.
a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of
“racism is a pestilence at the heart of the nation”