respite has 10 distinct synonyms spread across 6 of its 6 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 pause from doing something (as work)
“we took a 10-minute break”
an interruption in the intensity or amount of something
a pause for relaxation
“people actually accomplish more when they take time for short rests”
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for respite come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.