Some Opposites

by Richard Wilbur

What is the opposite of riot?

It is lots of people keeping quiet.

The opposite of doughnut? Wait

A minute while I meditate

This isn’t easy. Ah! I’ve found it.

It’s a cookie with a hole around it.

What is the opposite of two?

A lonely me,a lonely you.

The opposite of a cloud could be

A white reflection in the sea

Or a huge blueness in the air

Caused by the cloud’s not being there

The opposite of opposite?

That’s much too difficult. I quit.

When someone asks you what a word means, you are supposed to give an answer that doesn’t include the word you are trying to define. However, when trying to explain what opposite means, this can be a bit tricky. Opposite means a word that means the opposite of a word. But as you see, I broke the “rule” about explaining what something means. So let me give a few examples instead:

• the opposite of male is female
• the opposite of big is small
• the opposite of loud is quiet

Opposites are great for a lot of different reasons. You can use them to expand your vocabulary, they can make your writing more creative and they can help you to remember new words quicker and better. For example, if you group words together based on a common element you might be able to learn and remember those words quicker. You could then also take those words and find out the opposites of each one. That would increase your vocabulary!

A really cool website for discovering opposites is called Opposite Word.

Exercise:

In the list below, underline the words that can have opposites and draw a circle around those that can’t. Then write down the underlined words and their opposites.

• far
• door
• blue
• wrong
• grass
• quickly
• pencil
• light
• happy
• fridge
• ten
• town
• small
• computer
• duck