Contrast
Some words are easily explained to learners by contrasting it with its opposite, for instance, the word" good" contrasted with the word "bad". But some words are not. It is almost impossible to contrast the words whose opposite is the gradable one. When the word "white" is contrasted with the word "black", there is an "in between" word” grey”. Furthermore, verb "contrast" means to show a difference, like photos that reveal how much weight someone lost by contrasting the "before" and "after" shots Many more studies have also shown that vocabulary is best acquired if it is similar to what is already learnt, it is not surprising that learning synonyms is a way to expand our vocabulary. Learning about synonyms is important also because this is how dictionaries are organized. Putting bilingual dictionaries aside, mono-lingual dictionaries essentially use words to explain words, and in this process, synonyms are often used (Ilson, 1991).