Synonyms

[SarahRTW]

Synonyms are words that sound different but mean the same thing.

For example: Happy and Glad; Autumn is also called Fall; Stumble and Trip

While synonyms have the same meaning, they often have different implications and affect the text.  This is called implicit meaning, I'll write a separate post about it soon.  For now, just know that the words you chose will make the text 'feel different. 

consider this:

"I went to the physician about my stomach ache last night"

"I went to the doctor about my stomach ache last night"

"I went to the quack* about my stomach ache last night"

* Quack is an insulting name for a doctor, it means the doctor is incompetent or doesn't know what he's doing

When writing using synonyms, don't overdo it.  Langauge should sound natural, not like you scoured the dictionary for the best sounding word availabile.

[linguaholic]

From a linguistic perspective, we would have to ask ourselves if there really is such a thing as a synonym. There are of course words that almost mean the same, however, each word got a special "feel" and touch" to it. Every word also got its own connotation, either neutral, positive or negative.

Wikipedia defines connotation as follows:

"A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that some word or phrase carries, in addition to the word's or phrase's explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation."

In English, two words that are really close in meaning are for example "start" and "begin". In my opinion, their connotation is also almost the same!

[sayitwell]

I agree with the original poster.  I don't understand why there are so many synonyms in existence for such simple words like "doctor".  I really felt that my college professors were overdoing it with the use of synonyms while lecturing in front of the class.  I swear, they were just trying to fill up time so they would repeat the same words and concepts over and over but in a different form (meaning different words) just to fill the class time allotment.

[SarahRTW]

Linguaholic and I were actually saying much the same thing.  And she is (guessing "she based on your avatar) quite correct in her statement.

As I said, each word lends its own meaning or feel to a sentence. Synonyms may mean roughly the same thing, but rarely are they identical in meaning. 

Glad and Happy are different degrees of emotion

Doctor and Physician are both medical professionals, but saying physician gives it a sense of greater importance or dignity.

Drunk means you've had too much alcohol while intoxicated implies a greater degree of drunkenness. (you can then go into slang and informal words, such as sloughed and hammered)

[Daedalus]

When writing longer texts, such as stories, letters, forum posts (haha), use of synonyms is recommended. It will make your writing more vivid.

It can be difficult for non-native speakers to do though, as it requires a more extensive vocabulary and one may not be familiar with the connotations. There are websites that list synonyms for words, but you can't just pick any of them.

A Physician can be called a Doctor, but a Doctor is not necessarily a Physician, so those are things to keep in mind as well. In most cases, you can use Physician as synonym for Doctor, but it would not make much sense to go see a Doctor of Arts if you've got a headache.

[LauraM]

It can be difficult for non-native speakers to do though, as it requires a more extensive vocabulary and one may not be familiar with the connotations. There are websites that list synonyms for words, but you can't just pick any of them.

This can be a challenge for native speakers as well.  Often there are subtle differences between synonyms.  SarahRTW mentioned "happy" and "glad" as examples.  There are other synonyms for "happy" -- such as  "delighted" and "joyful" and "blissful" -- and they all reflect various states of emotion and are not interchangeable. 

I find that consulting a thesaurus is very helpful.  Also sometimes if I want to know if a word as an underlying meaning that I'm not aware of, I will Google and see if I can find some examples of how the word is being used, and the context in which it's being used. 

[SarahRTW]

A Thesaurus is certainly a great resource to have.  However, don't go for the longest or fanciest word you can find.  Even when you use a thesaurus, your language should sound natural - like you already knew the word.  Teachers won't be impressed if your paper is peppered with overlong, rarely used synonyms that scream "I used a thesaurus".