As a pair of opposites, two words are designated, which mean the absolute opposite of each other. As an example, the adjectives can be cited cold and hot. If it is cold, it has a very low temperature, it is hot, it has an elevated temperature. In relation to the temperature, the words stand opposite each other and for this reason form a contrasting pair. Such words, which have the opposite meaning, are also called counter-words or antonyms.
Question: Is there an opposite for each word?
Numerous words can be found. Presumably, it is also true that even the most adjectives have the opposite meaning. However, there are numerous nouns without the opposite, whereby all numerals (numeric words) have no antonym.
It is true that there are some illustrations or expressions, but especially for many nouns, there can be no opposite. For example, a book is a collection of pages that are held together by a binding and usually a cover. For this, no contrary can be thought or formed. The same applies, of course, to most of the names – what should be the opposite of fir or rose?
And also common pairs like cat / dog or fire / water are in the actual sense no opposites. For example, a fire is a form of combustion, with flames being generated. The opposite of fire would therefore be a non-combustion that does not cause flames. The water, however, is a hydrogen-oxygen compound and a transparent, color, odor and also tasteless liquid.
However, counterfeits can be formed as stylistic means to spontaneously close a linguistic gap, or because the speaker does not come to mind when speaking. So the sentence Boah! Yesterday that was a real unparty! conceivable, if the speaker wants to express that the celebration yesterday evening was not a real party, but a lame event.
Nevertheless, the concept of “unparty” does not belong to the German vocabulary and could also be regarded as a stylistic mistake. Such an education is referred to as occasionalism, that is, as a spontaneous word-creation. Thus, by means of an occasionalism, a contrasting pair can be formed for each word. However, if one follows dictionary books and is oriented on spoken vocabulary, this is not possible.
Short overview: The most important part of the term at a glance
As a pair of opposites, two words are used which signify the absolute opposite of each other. Such words are opposed to one another and are referred to as counter-words or antonyms. A word can have several words.
However, it is not possible to form pairs of opposites using each word. There are simply terms that have no counter word. In any case, a spontaneous pair of words, which can be regarded as a stylistic mistake, can be constructed by a contrasting pair.