tarnish

Questions about tarnish

What is another word for tarnish?

Across its 2 senses, tarnish has 4 distinct synonyms: stain, maculate, sully, defile. Each belongs to a specific meaning, listed on this page under the sense it serves.

What is the opposite of tarnish?

WordNet records no antonym for tarnish. 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 tarnish split into groups?

Because tarnish 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 tarnish 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 tarnish

• Full entry for tarnishAll 2 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for tarnishWords matching from the last stressed vowel onward, grouped by syllable count.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.