Synonyms (Paryayvachi Shabd) — Patwari Notes

What are Paryayvachi (synonym) words?

Words whose meaning is the same or nearly the same are called paryayvachi (synonymous) or samanarthi words — for example, the synonyms of 'जल' (water) are पानी, नीर, सलिल, वारि. Because of Hindi's Sanskrit roots, a single thing often has many synonyms, especially for elements of nature (जल, वायु, अग्नि — water, air, fire), parts of the body, and common nouns (मनुष्य, स्त्री, राजा — human, woman, king).

Keep in mind that words with a perfectly identical meaning are rare — most synonyms carry a slightly different shade (nuance) of meaning, so the correct word should be chosen by looking at the sentence's context. For instance, 'गृह' and 'सदन' are both synonyms of 'घर' (house), but 'सदन' is used more in formal contexts (राष्ट्रपति सदन — the President's residence).

When choosing a synonym, you also need to watch gender and number — words of the same meaning sometimes belong to different genders and cannot simply be swapped for one another in a sentence. For example, the synonyms of 'स्त्री' (woman) — 'नारी', 'महिला', 'वनिता' — are all feminine, so the verb and adjective forms in the sentence stay feminine too. Likewise, some synonyms sound natural only in the singular or only in the plural. Exam questions don't ask about gender and number directly, but this understanding helps indirectly in questions about using a word in a sentence.

Also remember that synonyms are mostly tatsam (Sanskrit-derived), although a few tadbhav words are included too; and since this syllabus mostly stays within pure Hindi-Sanskrit vocabulary, synonyms of English-origin words aren't generally asked in the exam. The biggest mistake in preparation is that students mechanically memorise words without understanding their context, which makes it easy to get confused by options containing similar-looking but differently-meaning words.

Even when a word has many synonyms, how often each is actually used varies — for example, 'पानी' is more common in everyday language than 'जल', while words like 'सलिल' and 'वारि' are mostly found in literary or poetic language. Understanding this distinction is useful in exam preparation because passage-based questions usually expect the more commonly used word as the correct answer.

Synonym groups frequently asked in exams

Exams often slip into an option a word that is actually a synonym of a different word — for instance, putting a synonym of 'वृक्ष' (tree) into the options for 'जंगल' (forest).

Strategy for identifying word meanings within a passage

When a passage asks for the meaning of a word (such as 'प्रमाण'), read it within the context of the whole sentence rather than memorising the word in isolation. For example, in a line like 'प्रचुरता का प्रमाण', 'प्रमाण' means 'proof', while similar-sounding words like 'प्रमाद' (carelessness) and 'प्रमत्त' (intoxicated/reckless) may be placed among the options to create confusion. In such questions, look at the correct meaning in context, not at similarity of sound.

One interesting reason behind synonyms is that, in Sanskrit, the same thing was given different names based on its different qualities — for instance, the sun was called 'दिनकर' (the maker of day), 'भानु' (the shining one), and 'आदित्य' (son of Aditi) — meaning every synonym is tied to some quality or mythological reference. If you understand this background instead of simply rote-learning words for the exam, it becomes easier to work out even an unfamiliar word from its meaning.

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