English Synonyms and Antonyms. James Champlin Fernald

ALARM.

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      Synonyms:

affright,	disquietude,	fright,	solicitude,
apprehension,	dread,	misgiving,	terror,
consternation,	fear,	panic,	timidity.
dismay,

      Alarm, according to its derivation all'arme, "to arms," is an arousing to meet and repel danger, and may be quite consistent with true courage. Affright and fright express sudden fear which, for the time at least, overwhelms courage. The sentinel discovers with alarm the sudden approach of the enemy; the unarmed villagers view it with affright. Apprehension, disquietude, dread, misgiving, and solicitude are in anticipation of danger; consternation, dismay, and terror are overwhelming fear, generally in the actual presence of that which is terrible, though these words also may have an anticipative force. Timidity is a quality, habit, or condition, a readiness to be affected with fear. A person of great timidity is constantly liable to needless alarm and even terror. Compare FEAR.

      Antonyms:

assurance,

calmness,

confidence,

repose,

security.

      Prepositions:

      Alarm was felt in the camp, among the soldiers, at the news.

ALERT.

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      Synonyms:

active,	lively,	prepared,	vigilant,
brisk,	nimble,	prompt,	watchful,
hustling,	on the watch,	ready,	wide-awake.

      Alert, ready, and wide-awake refer to a watchful promptness for action. Ready suggests thoughtful preparation; the wandering Indian is alert, the trained soldier is ready. Ready expresses more life and vigor than prepared. The gun is prepared; the man is ready. Prompt expresses readiness for appointment or[29] demand at the required moment. The good general is ready for emergencies, alert to perceive opportunity or peril, prompt to seize occasion. The sense of brisk, nimble is the secondary and now less common signification of alert. Compare ACTIVE; ALIVE; NIMBLE; VIGILANT.

      Antonyms:

drowsy,

dull,

heavy,

inactive,

slow,

sluggish,

stupid.

ALIEN, a.

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      Synonyms:

conflicting,	distant,	inappropriate,	strange,
contradictory,	foreign,	irrelevant,	unconnected,
contrary,	hostile,	opposed,	unlike.
contrasted,	impertinent,	remote,

      Foreign refers to difference of birth, alien to difference of allegiance. In their figurative use, that is foreign which is remote, unlike, or unconnected; that is alien which is conflicting, hostile, or opposed. Impertinent and irrelevant matters can not claim consideration in a certain connection; inappropriate matters could not properly be considered. Compare ALIEN, n.; CONTRAST, v.

      Antonyms:

akin,	apropos,	germane,	proper,
appropriate,	essential,	pertinent,	relevant.

      Prepositions:

      Such a purpose was alien to (or from) my thought: to preferable.

ALIEN, n.

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      Synonyms:

foreigner,

stranger.

      A naturalized citizen is not an alien, though a foreigner by birth, and perhaps a stranger in the place where he resides. A person of foreign birth not naturalized is an alien, though he may have been resident in the country a large part of a lifetime, and ceased to be a stranger to its people or institutions. He is an alien in one country if his allegiance is to another. The people of any country still residing in their own land are, strictly speaking, foreigners to the people of all