ABSTRACT
Earlier in this chapter we took a detailed look at synonyms and at how the apparently straightforward notion of same meaning in reality turns out to be elusive, indeed questionable. Nevertheless, in most cases the term synonym remains a legitimate and useful one: the differences between the words in question are to do with nuances (shades of meaning) and these are subtle even though they are crucial. But there are some words commonly supposed to be synonyms that are no such thing.
