Definition of "synonym" [syn•o•nym]

• A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or other words in a language. (noun)
• A word or an expression that serves as a figurative or symbolic substitute for another. (noun)
• Biology A scientific name of an organism or of a taxonomic group that has been superseded by another name at the same rank. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In a previous column, cleared by copy editors and other arbiters of editorial taste after great hair-tearing and teeth-gnashing, we explored the penile and ornamental origins of the German-Yiddish schmuck, which has lost its taboo and is now a slang synonym for jerk, nerd, dork and creep."
• "Another synonym is "maison de tolérance" (house of tolerance) and the humor is not lost on me as I go about putting together this unexpected edition ..."
• "Around 1960, it became a slang synonym for any kind of failure, "we cratered.""