synonymy (n.)

A term used in SEMANTICS to refer to a major type of SENSE relation between LEXICAL ITEMS: lexical items which have the same MEANINGS are synonyms. For two items to be synonyms, it does not mean that they should be identical in meaning, i.e. interchangeable in all CONTEXTS, and with identical CONNOTATIONS – this unlikely possibility is sometimes referred to as total synonymy. Synonymy can be said to occur if items are close enough in their meaning to allow a choice to be made between them in some contexts, without there being any difference for the meaning of the sentence as a whole. Linguistic studies of synonymy have emphasized the importance of context in deciding whether a set of lexical items is synonymous. For example, in the context What a nice — of flowers, the items range, selection, choice, etc., are synonymous; but in the context Her — of knowledge is enormous, only range can be used, along with a different set of synonyms, e.g. breadth. Synonymy is distinguished from such other sense relations as ANTONYMY, HYPONYMY and INCOMPATIBILITY.