Chinese synonym & antonym lookup. Type a common word to see curated 近义词 (near-synonyms) and 反义词 (antonyms), with sense notes on words that have more than one meaning; click any chip to look it up. 简体/繁體/English.
Chinese Synonyms & Antonyms
How to use
Enter a Chinese word
Type a common word into the box — e.g. 高, 快, 美丽. Simplified or Traditional both work; results update as you type (after the IME commits a word), or press "Look up" / Enter.
Read near-synonyms and antonyms
Results split into two columns: green = near-synonyms (近义词), red = antonyms (反义词). A yellow box explains a word with several senses; small print under a chip says which sense that pair holds in.
Click a chip to keep going
Underlined chips are entries too — click one to look it up. Watch the meaning drift as you chain clicks.
Browse all entries
"Browse all entries" lists all 229 words. If a word is not in the set, the tool lists the entries that share a character with it.
Synonyms & Antonyms: A Reference for Chinese Vocabulary
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionary, the 重編國語辭典修訂本, defines synonyms as words the same or close in meaning and splits them in two. 等義詞 (true equivalents) do not differ even in feeling or style — its examples are 元音/母音 and 番薯/地瓜 — and it says such cases are very rare. Most synonyms are 近义词 (near-synonyms), which differ in degree, colour or style, such as 赞成/同意 (entry 同義詞). An antonym (反义词) is a word of opposite meaning, such as 真/假 or 高/低 (entry 反義詞). So the near-synonyms this tool lists are words to compare, not words to swap in unchecked.
This is a bounded, curated set
This tool offers a bounded learning set written by this site (229 common words). It is not an exhaustive thesaurus, and it copies no dictionary’s synonym or antonym lists. It does not replace a full dictionary, and it leaves out rare words and technical terms. If a word you search is not included, that does not mean it has no synonyms or antonyms.
Why the sense matters
Dictionaries often file synonyms and antonyms under one numbered sense, so a word with several meanings can have several sets. Most entries here carry no sense labels, which means a pair often holds in one sense only. The clearest polysemous words carry a note: 骄傲 is both negative "arrogant" (near-synonym 傲慢, antonym 谦虚) and positive "proud" (自豪); 新鲜 opposes 腐烂 when it describes food and 陈旧 when it means novel. Follow near-synonyms click by click and the meaning drifts: 清闲 → 悠闲 → 安逸 → 舒适 → 惬意 → 满意 takes "at leisure, with nothing to do" to "satisfied" in five steps.
This tool runs entirely in your browser — it calls no network service and no AI model, and it uploads or stores nothing you type. Every result is a deterministic table lookup, so output is stable and reproducible.
A dictionary often files synonyms under one sense, and true equivalents are rare
The 重編國語辭典修訂本 says true equivalents (等義詞), identical even in feeling and style, are very rare, and gives 元音/母音 and 番薯/地瓜; other synonyms differ in degree, colour or style (entry 同義詞).
The 國語辭典簡編本 often files its synonyms and antonyms under one sense: 美味’s synonym 可口 sits under sense 2 (tasting good), with no antonym listed. Not always, though: 驕傲 has two senses, arrogant and proud, yet its lists (高傲; 謙虛, 謙遜) carry no number, and by meaning they fit only the first (簡編本).
A definition can test a pair: the 簡編本 defines 悶熱 as a kind of 燥熱 (heat from high temperature and still air) and 遙遠 as far in time or space, which is why this tool keeps both 闷热/燥热 and 遥远/久远.
The Traditional view uses the 簡編本 head forms: 溼潤 not 濕潤, 汙穢 not 污穢, 彆扭 not 別扭, 凶惡 not 兇惡 (the 簡編本 has no entry under 兇惡). Typing the other form still finds the word.
Clicking through near-synonyms in this set, 热烈 reaches 15 words, the most of any entry (the median is 2) — yet no chain from any word ever reaches that word’s own antonym.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Per the 重編國語辭典修訂本, synonyms are words the same or close in meaning, nearly all of them near-synonyms that differ in degree, colour or style (赞成/同意); antonyms are words of opposite meaning (高/低). A near-synonym is a candidate for another phrasing; an antonym shows the other end of a word’s meaning.
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No. The dictionary calls true equivalents very rare; near-synonyms usually differ in degree, colour or style, and often match in one sense only. 骄傲 in this tool shows it: its near-synonyms 自豪 (positive) and 傲慢 (negative) cannot stand in for each other. Check the context before substituting.
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This is a bounded set written by this site (229 common words), not a full dictionary; rare words and technical terms are not in it. When a word is missing, the tool lists the entries that share a character with it. Not being included does not mean a word has no synonyms or antonyms.
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The set is Simplified-keyed. The Traditional view uses the head forms of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education 國語辭典簡編本 — 溼潤, 汙穢, 彆扭, 凶惡 — and readers who choose Hong Kong Traditional see the same forms; the tool has no separate Hong Kong set. Traditional or variant input (濕, 兇) is folded back to Simplified before lookup.
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Yes, and often for different senses. Dictionaries often file antonyms under one sense; this tool notes it on polysemous words such as 新鲜, which opposes 腐烂 for food and 陈旧 for novelty. Other entries list common usage only and cannot cover every sense.
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An underlined chip is an entry too; clicking it makes it the new query. Meaning drifts along a chain — 清闲 → 悠闲 → 安逸 → 舒适 → 惬意 → 满意 — so a word at the end of a chain may no longer stand in for the one you started with.
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The set is written by this site and copies no dictionary’s synonym or antonym lists. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionaries are licensed CC BY-ND, which forbids adapting them or converting them to Simplified characters, so this tool only quotes their definitions and spellings, with the source beside each.
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No. It is a deterministic lookup — the same word always returns the same result. Everything runs in your browser: no network, no AI model, and nothing you type is uploaded or stored.
Method & sources
How it computes
Lookup in a list of 229 common Simplified-keyed words written by this site, each with near-synonyms and antonyms and, for a few polysemous words, a sense note. Traditional or variant input (兇, 濕) is folded to the Simplified key; the Traditional view uses MOE 國語辭典簡編本 head forms (溼, 汙, 彆扭, 凶惡). No dictionary list is copied and no model is called (SynonymAntonymKernel).
What this tool implements
- Checked 2026-10-25 against the Taiwan Ministry of Education's 國語辭典簡編本 open data (相似詞 / 相反詞 columns): 223 of the 229 words are in it; 56 of 148 comparable synonym chips and 230 of 366 antonym chips match its lists, and none contradicts it (no listed synonym is an MOE antonym or the reverse).
- Corrected 2026-10-25: four words were entered twice (宽阔, 热闹, 热情, 镇定) and the second entry never showed; merged. The Traditional view converted character by character and misspelled 拮据, 准许, 动荡, 潮湿 and 了解 (拮據, 準許, 動蕩, 潮濕, 瞭解); it now uses the MOE forms. 'About 200 words' is 229 (all three languages); 寒冷 is 'very cold', not 'freezing'.
- Definitions on the page from 重編國語辭典修訂本: 同義詞 (等義詞 identical even in 感情色彩 and 風格, "此類例子極少"; most are 近義詞 differing in 程度、色彩、風格) and 反義詞 ("意義相反的詞"). Sense numbering, 美味, 驕傲, 悶熱, 遙遠 and the head forms 溼潤, 汙穢, 彆扭, 凶惡 read from 國語辭典簡編本 on 2026-11-03.
- Corrected 2026-11-03: 湿 was shown as 濕 in 濕潤 / 濕 but 溼 in 潮溼, and 污穢 / 別扭 differed from the MOE heads; one form each now (溼, 汙, 彆扭). 兇惡 now finds 凶恶. Removed: 美味↔难闻, 肥沃↔干旱 (and 富饶 / 丰腴 as synonyms; now 肥美), 镇定↔失措, 开始 / 结束↔起初, 陌生 / 不熟, 不同 / 差异, 光荣 / 荣誉, the tone-flipping 冷清 / 清静, 分散 / 涣散, 坚硬 / 僵硬, 潮湿 / 湿润, and (as a precaution; MOE's definitions join them) 真实 / 确实, 激动 / 冲动; 美丽 / 美好 replaced by 好看. A second reading against 簡編本 definitions removed 团结 / 和睦, 迟钝 / 木讷, 贫瘠 / 荒芜, 繁忙 / 繁重 and the antonyms 遥远↔附近, 果敢↔优柔, 光滑↔坑洼. Chips 457 → 442 synonyms, 450 → 443 antonyms. Sense notes on 骄傲, 紧张, 宽松, 新鲜 and eight pairs. The page no longer calls the pairs "unambiguous", synonyms "interchangeable in most contexts", or 自动 "automatic", and says the 簡編本 numbers its lists by sense only sometimes (驕傲 is unnumbered).
Sources
- Ministry of Education (Taiwan). 重編國語辭典修訂本, entry 同義詞. https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=55758
- Ministry of Education (Taiwan). 重編國語辭典修訂本, entry 反義詞. https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=35202
- Ministry of Education (Taiwan). 國語辭典簡編本 (entries 美味, 驕傲, 悶熱, 遙遠, 溼潤, 汙穢, 彆扭, 凶惡), CC BY-ND 3.0 TW. https://dict.concised.moe.edu.tw/
- Ministry of Education (Taiwan). 國語辭典簡編本 open data (dict_concised_2014), 相似詞 and 相反詞 columns, CC BY-ND. https://language.moe.gov.tw/001/Upload/Files/site_content/M0001/r…
What can make this go out of date
- None at runtime; nothing the reader types leaves the page.
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