Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Looking Up Antonyms.

Looking Up Antonyms

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 16, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

One of the tools that Word provides is a full thesaurus. You can use this tool to find alternate words with the same meaning (synonyms), words with the opposite meaning (antonyms), or related words. Antonyms are not available for all words, but when they are available, you can easily select them. To find an antonym, follow these steps:

Position the insertion point in the word you wish to check.
Press Shift+F7. Word displays the Research pane at the right side of your document.
If antonyms are available for the word, you will see the phrase "(Antonym)" after the word. (There may be more than one antonym shown for the word you selected.)
Position the mouse pointer over the antonym in which you are interested. Word displays a drop-down arrow at the right side of the word.
Click the drop-down arrow and then click on Insert. Word replaces the word you specified in step 1 with the antonym you pointed at in step 4.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11942) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Looking Up Antonyms.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Displaying Fields

Fields (sometimes called field codes) allow you to insert dynamic information in your documents. If you want to see the ...

Discover More

Excel Refuses to Put Page Breaks between Subtotal Groups

Page breaks not appearing where you expect them in your subtotaled data? It could be because of a setting you made in ...

Discover More

Changing the Axis Scale

When creating a chart, you may want to adjust the default scaling that Excel applies to an axis. This is relatively easy ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Returning to the Source of a Cross-Reference

If you add cross-references to your document, you may want a way for the reader to follow the reference and then return ...

Discover More

Creating Multiple Highlighter Tools

Some people, while developing documents, like to use the Highlighter tool quite a bit. It can quickly get monotonous, ...

Discover More

Turning Off Hyphenation for Individual Words

Word does a semi-decent job when it comes to automatically hyphenating your documents. It even lets you exclude certain ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is seven less than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.