Strength of synonyms

[Photon Guy]

Photon Guy, this isn't the first time I've corrected "its" to "it's" and "ect." to "etc" in your posts. Take care with those.

Sure thing. It's been awhile since I've been in school and Im getting up there in years so my grammar and spelling has diminished a bit.

 

[Photon Guy]

So anyway I've been thinking, would it be correct to say that certain synonyms are more extreme than others? For instance, with the words pretty, beautiful, and gorgeous that the word gorgeous is the most extreme followed by beautiful and lastly by pretty. Or the words small, little, and tiny, its the same thing with tiny being the most extreme. Same thing with the words big, large, and huge with huge being the most extreme. Im not sure you could call some words stronger than others in that regard but you could say some words are more extreme or go to a greater degree than other words.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, you're right about some adjectives being more extreme than others, though this is nothing really to do with synonymy. However, let me use some of your synonyms to show you some linguistic differences.

She's very pretty. [fine]
She's very beautiful. [fine]
She's very gorgeous. [not right]

She's absolutely pretty. [not right]
She's absolutely beautiful. [fine]
She's absolutely gorgeous. [fine]

You could say that gorgeous is an 'extreme' adjective, because it works after absolutely and doesn't work after very. Now try the same thing with the other words you mention.