Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms
.pdfv. ease, expedite, smooth, further, promote, advance; assist, aid, help: It would facilitate transport if you would bring your own car.
facility n. 1 ease, smoothness, fluency, effortlessness, readiness, easiness, skill, skilfulness, deftness, dexterity, adroitness, ability, aptitude, expertise, expertness, proficiency, mastery, masterfulness, masterliness, efficiency; quickness, alacrity, celerity, swiftness, speed: They praised her new-found facility with the Italian language. 2 Often, facilities. a plant,
system, building(s), structure, complex: The company is building a new facility in France. b convenience(s), privy, equipment, lavatory, toilet, powder-room, Nautical head, Brit water-closet, WC, loo, US and Canadian rest room, men's room, ladies' room, Colloq the Gents, the Ladies('), Slang Brit bog,
karzy, US and Canadian john: An American asked where he could find the facilities.
facing n. fa‡ade, front, cladding, surface, overlay, skin; coating: The houses all have a colourful stucco facing.
facsimile n. copy, reproduction, print, carbon (copy), replica, duplicate, photocopy, fax, Trade Mark Xerox (copy), Photostat, Colloq US dupe: Send a facsimile of the report to each field office.
fact |
n. 1 reality, actuality, truth, certainty: The fact of the |
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matter is that she didn't do it. Is there a basis in fact for |
your allegations? 2 accomplishment, fait accompli; occurrence, event, happening, incident, episode, experience, act, deed: Supersonic travel has been a fact for many years. 3 Often, facts. data, information, particular(s), detail(s), point(s), item(s), factor(s), Colloq low-down, (inside) info, the score,
Brit the gen, US and Canadian the poop: If I am going to defend you, I need all the facts of the case. 4 in fact. indeed, to be
sure, as a matter of (actual) fact, in truth, truly, truthfully, actually, really, in reality, in point of fact, factually: He didn't come; in fact, he had gone abroad the week before.
faction n. 1 group, cabal, bloc, cadre, camp, splinter group, circle, camarilla, clique, set, coterie, lobby, pressure group, junta or junto, ring, gang, Brit ginger group, Colloq crowd: There is a small faction plotting to assassinate the finance minister. 2
dissension, intrigue, strife, sedition, disharmony, discord, disagreement, quarrelling, contention, controversy, infighting, rupture, split, rift, schism, clash: Faction within the party
has no regard for national interests.
factious adj. contentious, disputatious, litigious, refractory, divisive, conflicting, discordant, argumentative, at odds, at loggerheads, quarrelsome, seditious, mutinous, rebellious: A factious Congress spells trouble for the President.
factitious
adj. fake(d), bogus, false, mock, falsified, artificial, insincere, unreal, synthetic, fabricated, engineered,
manufactured, spurious, counterfeit, sham, simulated, imitation, unauthentic, set or got up, rigged, Colloq phoney or US also phony: We are all victims of factitious desires by which luxuries have become necessities.
factor n. 1 constituent, ingredient, element, part, particular, piece, component; circumstance, consideration, aspect, fact, influence, determinant, cause: Which factors contributed to the decline of Mayan civilization? 2 agent, representative, proxy, middleman, intermediary, deputy, go-between: Our company has a factor handling all our exports. 3 banker, financier, backer, moneylender, lender: The factors lent us money to buy the stock needed to fill the orders.
factory |
n. works, mill, plant: She has a job at the piano factory. |
factual |
adj. 1 actual, real, true, authentic, verifiable, realistic, |
true to life, genuine, valid, bona fide: The report is a forgery, but the letters are factual. 2 accurate, correct, true, correct, faithful, precise, unbiased, undistorted, unvarnished, unexaggerated, objective, unprejudiced, straightforward: This is a factual account of the Battle of Marathon.
faculty n. 1 ability, capacity, skill, aptitude, potential, talent, flair, knack, gift, genius; dexterity, adroitness, cleverness, capability: She has a faculty for making people feel at home.
2 school, department, discipline: Her graduate studies were in the Faculty of Philosophy. 3 staff, personnel, members, Brit dons: Each member of the faculty has a doctorate. 4 power,
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authorization, dispensation, sanction, licence, prerogative, |
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privilege, right, permission, liberty: The government has the |
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faculty to judge treasonable acts. |
fad |
n. craze, mania, rage, fashion, trend, fancy, vogue: Do you |
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remember the hula-hoop fad? |
fade |
v. 1 (grow) dim or pale, grow faint, cloud (over), dull; |
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bleach, whiten, etiolate, wash out, blanch or blench, discolour: |
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The scene faded in the distance. Look how the sun has faded the |
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curtains! 2 droop, wither, decline, die out or away, perish, |
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ebb, flag, wane, wilt, waste away, sag, diminish, dwindle, |
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languish, deteriorate, decay, shrivel, peter out or away: As he |
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aged, his lust for life faded. |
fag |
v. 1 Often, fag out. exhaust, weary, tire (out), fatigue, wear |
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out, jade, Colloq Brit knacker, US poop: I am completely fagged |
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out from studying all night. |
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--n. 2 Brit bore, nuisance, drag, chore, pain: It's a bit of a |
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fag having to fetch water from the garden. 3 servant, menial, |
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flunkey, drudge, lackey, underling: The seniors used to have |
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fags to clean their shoes. 4 See homosexual, 1, below. 5 |
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cigarette, smoke, Colloq butt, cig(gy), weed, coffin-nail, |
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cancer stick, Old-fashioned gasper: Got a fag? |
fail |
v. 1 not succeed, be unsuccessful, miss, miscarry, misfire, |
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fall short (of), fall flat, fall through, falter, be (found) |
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lacking or wanting, be defective, be deficient, be or prove |
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inadequate, come to grief or naught or nothing, go wrong, abort, |
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meet with disaster, founder, run aground, Colloq flop, fizzle |
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(out), go up in smoke, flunk: Guy Fawkes's plot failed utterly. |
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Gloria failed her history examination. 2 let down, disappoint, |
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forsake, desert, abandon, neglect, ignore, slight: I was really |
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counting on Mary, but she failed me. 3 decline, peter out, |
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dwindle, diminish, wane, deteriorate, weaken, decay, fade or die |
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(out or away), disappear, flag, ebb, sink, languish, give out; |
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gutter, go out: His health is failing. The light failed, |
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leaving us in darkness. 4 go bankrupt, go out of business, go |
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under, go into receivership, become insolvent, close up shop, |
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close up or down, cease operation(s), Brit go to the wall, US |
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file for Chapter Eleven, Colloq fold (up), go bust or broke, US |
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drown in red ink: According to the statistics, hundreds of |
businesses fail every week.
failing n. 1 weakness, shortcoming, foible, flaw, fault, defect, weak spot, blind spot, blemish, imperfection: Bigotry and prejudice are her most serious failings.
--prep. 2 lacking, wanting, in default of, without, sans, in the absence of: Failing a favourable decision, we shall lodge an appeal.
failure n. 1 failing, default, non-performance, remissness; neglect, omission, dereliction, deficiency: His failure to do his duty resulted in a court martial. 2 breakdown, collapse, discontinuance, miscarriage, loss; decline, decay, deterioration: Power disruptions are caused by the failure of the national grid. 3 loser, non-starter, incompetent, also-ran,
nonentity, Colloq flop, fizzle, damp squib, dud, lemon, washout, dead duck, US lead balloon: He was an utter failure as a violinist. 4 bankruptcy, ruin, insolvency, downfall, crash, Colloq folding: Bank failures increased owing to bad loans and other poor investments.
faint adj. 1 dim, dull, pale, faded, indistinct, vague, hazy, imperceptible, indiscernible, unclear, blurred, blurry, muzzy, wavering, faltering, ill-defined, weak, feeble, flickering, subdued; low, soft, slight, hushed, muffled, muted, inaudible, stifled: A faint light burned in the corridor. I heard a faint noise. 2 dizzy, light-headed, unsteady, vertiginous, giddy, Colloq woozy: I felt faint after climbing the stairs.
--v. 3 black out, pass out, lose consciousness, swoon, drop, collapse, Colloq keel over: She fainted when they told her the news.
--n. 4 loss of consciousness, blackout, unconsciousness, collapse, swoon, Medicine syncope: He dropped in a dead faint.
faint-hearted
adj. 1 cowardly, timorous, afraid, frightened, scared, faint, lily-livered, white-livered, pusillanimous; timid, shy, diffident; Colloq yellow(-bellied), chicken-hearted, chicken-livered, chicken: He's too faint-hearted to ask her to marry him. 2 irresolute, weak, ineffectual, feeble, puny,
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feckless: She made only a faint-hearted attempt at |
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reconciliation. |
fair° |
adj. 1 impartial, even-handed, disinterested, equitable, just, |
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unprejudiced, unbiased, objective, Colloq square: Judge Leaver |
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is known for his fair decisions. We are counting on your sense |
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of fair play. 2 honest, above-board, honourable, lawful, |
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trustworthy, legitimate, proper, upright, straightforward: He |
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won the trophy in a fair fight. 3 light, blond(e), fair-haired, |
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flaxen-haired, tow-headed, tow-haired; light-complexioned, |
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peaches and cream, rosy; unblemished, clear, spotless, |
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immaculate: She has fair hair and fair skin. 4 satisfactory, |
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adequate, respectable, pretty good, tolerable, passable, all |
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right, average, decent, middling, reasonable, comme ci, comme |
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‡a, not bad; mediocre, indifferent, Colloq so so, OK or okay: |
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The performance was fair but not outstanding. 5 favourable, |
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clear, sunny, fine, dry, bright, cloudless, pleasant, halcyon, |
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benign: Fair weather is promised for tomorrow's picnic. 6 |
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unobstructed, open, clear, free: Every spectator has a fair |
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view of the football field. 7 attractive, good-looking, |
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handsome, comely, pretty, beautiful, pulchritudinous, lovely, |
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beauteous: Faint heart never won fair lady. 8 civil, |
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courteous, polite, gracious, agreeable: She was not deceived by |
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his fair words. |
fairý |
n. fˆte, festival, kermis or kirmess, exhibition, exposition, |
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show; market, bazaar, mart, US exhibit: Ashby will judge the |
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sheep at the annual fair. |
fairly |
adv. 1 quite, rather, pretty, somewhat, tolerably, adequately, |
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sufficiently, passably, moderately, Colloq sort of, kind of: I |
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thought that the singing was fairly good. 2 equitably, |
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impartially, justly, properly, honestly, objectively: Please |
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make certain that everyone is treated fairly. 3 absolutely, |
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totally, utterly, completely, positively, really, actually, |
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veritably, virtually: The crowd fairly cheered themselves |
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hoarse. |
fairyland n. dreamland, wonderland, never-never land, happy valley, paradise, cloud-land, enchanted forest, cloud-cuckoo-land, Nephelococcygia, Shangri-La: Zuleika's thoughts are always off somewhere in fairyland.
faith n. 1 belief, credence, confidence, conviction, trust, certainty, certitude, assurance, assuredness, sureness, reliance, dependence: His faith in God is unassailable. I have great faith in her ability. 2 belief, religion, creed,
persuasion, dogma, teaching, doctrine, denomination, sect: To which faith do you belong? She is of the Jewish faith. 3 duty, allegiance, obligation, promise, faithfulness, loyalty,
fidelity, devotion, consecration, dedication, fealty, obedience: Don't break faith with your electorate by supporting the bill.
faithful adj. 1 true, loyal, devoted, steadfast, dedicated, attached, unswerving, firm, staunch, unwavering, constant: He has always remained faithful to his wife. 2 close, exact, accurate, true, correct, precise, perfect, valid; literal: Jowett's is a
faithful translation from the Greek. 3 conscientious, dutiful, scrupulous, careful, meticulous, thorough, punctilious, finicky or finical, detailed, fastidious, rigorous, rigid, severe, particular: He received a gold watch for fifty years of faithful attendance to his duties. 4 reliable, dependable, trusted, trustworthy, trusty, honest, true, truthful, righteous,
right, moral, virtuous, upright, veracious: He has remained my faithful friend for many years.
faithless adj. 1 sceptical, doubting, unbelieving, disbelieving, agnostic, atheistic, freethinking: Faithless wretches are
called Doubting Thomases. 2 unfaithful, disloyal, treacherous, traitorous, perfidious, shifting, shifty, fickle, inconstant, untrustworthy, unreliable, false, hypocritical, insincere, dishonest, false, crooked, unscrupulous, conscienceless, recreant: With faithless friends like her, who needs enemies?
fake |
v. 1 falsify, doctor, alter, modify, counterfeit, fabricate, |
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manufacture, forge: He faked the evidence in order to implicate |
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his own sister. 2 pretend, make a pretence of, dissemble, |
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feign, sham, make believe, simulate, affect: She faked a |
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headache to avoid gym classes. |
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--n. 3 hoax, counterfeit, sham, forgery, imitation, Colloq |
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phoney or US also phony: The experts agree that the painting is |
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a fake. 4 faker, impostor, charlatan, fraud, hoaxer, |
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mountebank, cheat, humbug, quack, pretender, Colloq phoney or US |
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also phony: He isn't a doctor - he's a fake! |
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--adj. 5 false, counterfeit, forged, sham, fraudulent, |
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imitation, pinchbeck, bogus, spurious, factitious, Colloq phoney |
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or US also phony: He escaped the country using a fake passport. |
fall |
v. 1 descend, sink, subside, settle, drop or come (down), |
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plummet, plunge, dive, (take a) nosedive; cascade: The bucket |
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fell to the bottom of the well. A meteorite fell on my house. |
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The water falls 100 metres over the cliff at this point. 2 |
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tumble, trip, stumble, slump, collapse, keel over, topple, |
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crumple: Mother fell in the kitchen and hurt her knee. 3 |
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diminish, (become) lower, sink, decline, fall or drop off, drop, |
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decrease, dwindle, subside, come or go down: The price of oil |
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fell today to a new low. 4 slope, fall away, decline: Beyond |
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the spinney, the meadow falls towards the river. 5 succumb, |
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surrender, yield, give up or in, capitulate, be defeated or |
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conquered, be captured, be taken (captive or prisoner), be |
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overthrown, come or go to ruin, be destroyed, be lost: The |
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castle fell after a year's siege. 6 die, perish, drop dead, be |
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slain or killed: His grandfather fell at the Battle of the |
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Marne. 7 fall apart. disintegrate, crumble, collapse, fall or |
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come or go to pieces, break up, be destroyed; break apart, |
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fragment, shatter: I knew she would fall apart on the witness |
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stand. The gadget fell apart as soon as we used it. 8 fall back. |
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retreat, retire, withdraw, draw back; recede: As the enemy |
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advanced, we fell back. 9 fall back on or upon. have recourse |
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to, rely or depend on or upon, return to, count on or upon, |
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resort to, call on or upon, make use of, use, employ: All the |
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ready ammunition was gone and we had to fall back on our |
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reserves. 10 fall behind. drop back, trail, lag; be in arrears: |
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If you fall behind, I'll wait for you. We fell behind in our |
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mortgage payments. 11 fall down. a collapse, drop: She hit me |
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so hard that I fell down. b fail, be (found) wanting or |
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lacking, be unsuccessful, be or prove inadequate or |
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disappointing: He had to be replaced because he fell down on |
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the job. 12 fall flat. collapse, fail, Colloq flop, US bomb |
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(out), lay an egg, go over like a lead balloon: A hit in London |
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might fall flat in New York. 13 fall for. a fall in love with, |
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be infatuated with: Some people will fall for anyone who tells |
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them the right time. b be fooled or duped or taken in or |
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deceived by, accept, swallow, succumb to, Slang be a sucker for, |
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US and Canadian be a patsy for: Did Beaseley really fall for |
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that old confidence trick? 14 fall in. cave in, collapse, sink |
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inwards: The walls were about to fall in on us. 15 fall in |
with. join, associate with, become associated or allied with, befriend; cooperate with, go along with, concur with, support, accept: He fell in with a gang of thieves and spent the next few years avoiding the police. She agreed to fall in with my plan. 16 fall off. diminish, decrease, decline, deteriorate: Business falls off immediately after Christmas. 17 fall on or upon. attack, assault, assail, set upon: Three muggers fell on me and stole my wallet. 18 fall out. disagree, differ, quarrel, clash, squabble, wrangle, dispute, fight: We fell out over politics. 19 fall short. prove or (turn out to) be inadequate
or insufficient or deficient or lacking or wanting or disappointing, miss, fail, disappoint: The results of the sales campaign fell short of expectations. 20 fall through. fail, come to nothing or naught, miscarry, die, Colloq fizzle (out), flop: The deal to buy the company fell through. 21 fall to. start, begin, commence, set or go about, get under way, undertake, tackle, take on; get moving, attack, Colloq get the show on the road, get cracking, US get a wiggle on, move it: The washing-up had to be done so I fell to.
--n. 22 drop, descent, dive, nosedive, plunge, tumble, dropping, falling: How could he have survived a fall from such a height? 23 Chiefly US and Canadian autumn: They turn the clocks back one hour in the fall. 24 decline, decay, collapse, downfall, failure, destruction, ruin, failure, deterioration, eclipse: Have you read Poe's classic Fall of the House of Usher ? 25 Usually, falls. cascade, cataract, waterfall; rapids: How many falls are there along the Limpopo River? 26 depreciation, sinking, diminution, decrease, decline, lapse, downturn, down-swing, drop, drop-off, lowering, abatement, slump, collapse: On the Stock Exchange today, investors experienced sharp falls in share prices. 27 slope, declivity, descent,
decline, drop, downhill, Chiefly US and Canadian downgrade: Note the smooth rise and fall of the land. 28 surrender, capitulation, submission, taking, seizure, capture, overthrow, defeat, conquest, downfall: The fall of Khartoum in 1898 marked the re-establishment of British rule in the Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan.
fallacy n. misconception, miscalculation, misjudgement, mistake, error, non sequitur, solecism, delusion; paralogism; sophism: It is a fallacy to think that you could ever learn to play the violin as
well as Susannah.
false adj. 1 untrue, unfactual, untruthful, wrong, amiss, mistaken, erroneous, incorrect, inaccurate, inexact, imprecise, faulty, flawed, invalid, unsound, unreal, imaginary, fictitious, spurious: The explorers gave a completely false picture of the local inhabitants. 2 untrue, untruthful, lying, misleading, fallacious, fabricated, made-up, concocted, mendacious, untrustworthy, fraudulent, meretricious, deceptive, deceitful,
treacherous, Colloq phoney or US also phony: The testimony of this witness is completely false. 3 counterfeit, imitation, simulated, sham, forged, fraudulent, fake, artificial,
synthetic, manufactured, unnatural, spurious, bogus, ersatz, factitious, mock, pseudo, Colloq phoney or US also phony: Your false teeth look almost real. 4 sham, feigned, affected,
insincere, faked, manufactured, counterfeit(ed): Don't shed any false tears over me when I'm gone. 5 illogical, fallacious, unsound, invalid, flawed, faulty: That conclusion could come only from false reasoning.
falsehood n. lie, fib, prevarication, untruth, fabrication, misstatement, fiction, (fairy) tale, story, distortion, Colloq cock-and-bull story, Slang Brit load of codswallop: That was a complete falsehood about the goings-on in the attic, wasn't it?
falsify |
v. fake, alter, distort, misstate, misrepresent, twist, Colloq |
fudge, trump up, Brit cook: The tax inspector found that the |
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accounts had been falsified. |
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falsity |
n. untruthfulness, mendacity, mendaciousness, fraudulence, |
deceptiveness, deceit, deceitfulness, dishonesty, spuriousness, |
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speciousness, casuistry, hypocrisy, insincerity, falseness: The |
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prosecution was unable to prove the falsity of her statement. |
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fame |
n. renown, repute, reputation, celebrity, illustriousness, |
superiority, pre-eminence, stardom, prominence, eminence, glory, name, notoriety, acclaim: Randolph's fame has spread far and wide.
familiar adj. 1 well-known, common, commonplace, everyday, ordinary, current: That's a familiar melody. 2 frequent, usual,
customary, habitual, routine, traditional: He strolled along his familiar route through the trees. 3 friendly, affable, close, intimate, sociable, social, free, free and easy, relaxed;
over-friendly, overfree, overfamiliar, bold, forward, insolent, impudent, presumptuous, presuming, disrespectful, unreserved, unrestrained; informal, casual, cordial, unceremonious; Colloq chummy, Slang US and Canadian buddy-buddy, palsy-walsy: She began to get entirely too familiar. 4 familiar with. aware or conscious or cognizant of, knowledgeable about or of or in, conversant or acquainted with, no stranger to, on speaking terms with, up on or in, (well-)versed in, informed of or about, privy
to, in the know about, au courant, au fait: Are you familiar with the latest theories in particle physics?
familiarity
n. 1 knowledge, acquaintance(ship), grasp, understanding, comprehension, cognizance, awareness, conversance, experience: I have no familiarity at all with particle physics. 2
friendliness, affability, sociability, neighbourliness, fellowship, intimacy, intimateness, closeness, openness, naturalness, ease, informality, unceremoniousness: He prided himself on his familiarity with celebrities. 3 boldness, presumptuousness, overfamiliarity, presumption, impudence,
insolence, impertinence, impropriety: He put his arm round her waist with offensive familiarity.
familiarize
v. Usually, familiarize with. accustom (to), make familiar or acquaint (with), initiate (in), inform (about or on), enlighten (about or as to), teach (about), educate or instruct or tutor (in): I am trying to familiarize myself with the music of John Cage.
family n. 1 (kith and) kin, kinsmen, kindred, kinsfolk or US and Canadian kinfolk, next of kin, relatives, relations, household, people, one's own flesh and blood, one's nearest and dearest, m‚nage, Colloq folks: We usually spend the holidays with my family. 2 children, offspring, progeny, issue, brood, Colloq
kids: Large families were much more common in the 19th century. 3 ancestors, forebears, forefathers, progenitors; ancestry, parentage, descent, extraction, derivation, lineage, pedigree, genealogy, family tree, house, line, bloodline, dynasty; blood, stock, strain: He came from an old family of German bankers. 4 group, set, division, subdivision, classification, type, kind,
class, genre, order, species, genus: English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages.