antonymy [Grk antí- ‘against,’ ónyma (=ónoma) ‘name’]

Relation of semantic opposition. In contrast to the general relation of incompatibility. antonymy is restricted to gradable expressions that usually correlate with opposite members of a scale: e.g. good vs bad. The various positions on the scale cannot be determined absolutely, but rather depend upon the context, e.g. A large mouse is smaller than a small elephant. ( also absolute antonymy, complementarity, gradable complementaries, polarity, semantic relation).