The English language is very rich in synonyms. This is partly due to the fact that English has over the centuries borrowed or absorbed（吸收）tens of thousands of words from other languages, mainly Greek, Latin and French（希腊语、拉丁语和法语）. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are generally colloquial or informal, and they form a great part of the vocabulary that people use daily. Many of the words of Greek, Latin and French origin are formal, learned or "big"; and are mainly used in formal writing or speech.

We should remember that words are only roughly or approximately synonym-ous（近义词意义只是大致相同）. It is difficult to find two words that have exactly the same meaning, carry the same implication, are used in the same collocation, or have the same stylistic value（文体价值）.

Little and small are both common words, and can be called synonyms. But they are slightly different in implication（含义）: little may imply a feeling of fondness（喜爱）, while small is objective（客观的）. Small is often used to modify amount, mistake, number, etc., but little is seldom used with these words. Similarly, big, large, huge and great are not the same in the degree of emphasis（强调程度）and collocation. Large is more emphatic than big; huge is the most emphatic of the three words. Great can be used to modify abstract nouns like courage and wisdom, and persons with special qualities, such as a great leader, a great strategist and a great composer, while the other three words are not used in this way.

Suitable and appropriate, lucky and fortunate, dangerous and hazardous, many and myriad, have similar meanings, but are different in style（语体不同）: of each pair the second word is more literary（书面的）than the first.

Laugh, smile, chuckle and giggle are verbs and nouns with similar meanings, but they denote（表示）different ways of laughing. To laugh is to smile with sounds of the voice（出声笑）, and to smile is to show amusement with an expression of the face without producing any sound of the voice（无声微笑）, to chuckle is to laugh quietly with a closed mouth（轻声笑）, and to giggle is to laugh repeatedly in an uncontrolled way, especially when one is amused, nervous or embarrassed（咯咯笑）. To describe a certain person’s smile or laugh on a certain occasion perhaps only one of these words is most suitable.

All this shows that it is important to study useful synonyms and their minute differences（细微差异）, so that we may choose the best word to express an idea. A good dictionary with explanations of synonyms may be helpful.