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etc. but in its other meanings it is not synonymous with this group
but rather with the verbs to seem, to appear);
2) it is hardly possible to speak of similarity of lexical
meaning as a whole as it is only the denotational component that
may be described as similar (e.g. to die and to pass away are
considered synonymous, but the stylistic reference is completely
different);
3) it is impossible to speak of identity in meaning as a
criterion of synonymity since identity of meaning is very rare even
among monosemantic words. The principal function of synonyms
is to represent the same phenomenon in different aspects, shades
and variations.
The synonymic dominant is the most general term
potentially containing the specific features rendered by all the
other members of the group. The words face, visage, countenance
have a common denotational meaning – the front of the head
which makes them close synonyms. Face is the dominant, the
most general word; countenance is the same part of the head with
the reference to the expression it bears; visage is a formal word,
chiefly literary, for face or countenance
The only existing classification system for synonyms was
established by Academician V. V. Vinogradov, the famous
Russian scholar. In his classification system there are three types
of synonyms: ideographic (which he defined as words conveying
the same concept but differing in shades of meaning), stylistic
(differing in stylistic characteristics) and absolute (coinciding in all
their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics).
According to the criterion of interchangeability in context
synonyms are classified into total, relative and contextual. Total
synonyms are those members of a synonymic group which can
replace each other in any given context, without the slightest
alteration in denotative meaning or emotional meaning and
connotations. They are very rare. Examples can be found mostly in

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