I agree with skunkee. Also, the words are not supposed to equal each other's definition; they are just related. It'd be unfortunate if someone became upset by it, but I'm sure there are plenty of entries that could potentially upset different people.

"Escape from Alcatraz"?

Just got a set with both 'Unfairness' and 'Unjust' as answers in the Antoym section today. The word to match up was 'fair'

Fairly interchangeable I would think but I was particularly surprised when I got:

The opposite of fair is unjust

You said: unfairness

Pretty sure that when you put 'un' in front of a world that they are exact antonyms of each other.

Think the two answers should be in different sets!

You should consider the type of word. A name can be an antonym of other name, but not of an adjective.

This reasoning also applies to the synonym part, but not necessarily to the relations part. That's why many people find the relation part more difficult.

This is one of those that I should've gotten through elimination, but I really can't see the connection (maybe my brain just hasn't woken up yet?). It was in the Relationships section:

equivalent is related to knowledge

...

equivalent means "a person or thing equal to another in value or measure or force or effect or significance etc"
knowledge means "the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning"

I took it that to make things equivalent, you needed knowledge of the items, without the knowledge, you cannot relate things. But that relation was forced because I haven't any knowledge (He He He)

akvavit
sambuca

One was defined as liquor. The other was defined as liqueur.

What is the difference?

According to eHow.com:

"Liquor is a distilled alcoholic beverage sometimes used as a base ingredient for the production of liqueur. Liqueur infuses flavoring agents and has added sugar syrup. Liqueur has a weaker alcoholic proof than liquor. Both fall under the category of spirits."

My dictionary also lists them separately without referring to the other. "Liqueur" is a sweet alcoholic drink, while "liquor" is a distilled alcoholic drink - not much difference there, but still, I'd expect them to be cross-referenced if they meant the same thing. I'm quite surprised as I always thought the spellings were interchangeable.

Thanks, reeshy. I always thought them interchangeable myself. And in fact my reference states that liqueur is distilled from fruits but now some liquors also are fruit-flavored so any difference there might have been has become pretty minor. With that in mind it doesn't seem right that liqueur and liquor should both appear in the same set of questions.
No one should read this as a gripe about my score. There are bigger concerns in the world than a score on some FT game or quiz.

I agree that the answers should probably not be together in a set!

As a former bartender, I can't see ever mixing these up - they are as different as, say, lager and ale.

Actually, the way I put that was a little misleading. Liqueurs are a kind of liquor, but not all liquors are liqueurs.

An analogous entry would be "Finnegans Wake" = book while "Superman" = comic book. If all you had was "Superman" and "book", you could put the two together, but once the much more precise subcategory that it clearly belongs in appears, and when there is another word that fits the larger category so well, there's no doubt what the right answer is.

I've always considered them two different entities. Liqueurs are usually drunk at the end of the meal, and have a specific meaning. You also get them in chocolates, especially at this time of year - it's the present you buy for your great aunt when you can't think of anything else (she either gets tipsy or gives them to the charity shop, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it?).

I guess being a young teetotaller partly explains why I had no idea! I actually thought one might be UK spelling while the other was US. Even here on the forum FT does its job of teaching new things!

Excuse me but... I have been a great-aunt since I was 21 years old! If any of my (many) great-nieces and -nephews even think about giving me liqueur chocolates, they know where I shall deposit them - and it won't be the charity shop!

I'm a great aunt too (although not since I was 21). If I was given liqueur chocolates, they'd be joining yours somewhere dark and not sunny, flopsy. Mind you, I don't mind a drop of Baileys - Salami can have the chocolate for his vault.

My teetotalness (is that the word? I have no idea! :P) does not actually extend to liqueur chocolates - they're too lovely! ^_^ It's round about this time of year one of my local shops puts down the prices on their Baileys truffles...sooo....goooooood.

clear is related to alter

clear means "rid of obstructions"
alter means "cause to change"

Apparently, I can use any verb whatsoever in combination with the word "alter".

From the first section:

bureaucratism is nonelective government officials

Bureaucrats are nonelected government officials.
Bureaucratism, an 'ism', is a philosophy not the people involved in the application of that philosophy.

Normally I don't bother sending corrections as so many definitions dubious in the extreme, but this definition broke the camel's back.

The opposite of fold is spread

You said: unbend

fold means "bend or lay so that one part covers the other"
spread means "spread out or open from a closed or folded state"

If fold means bend then the natural antonym is unbend, not spread.

whereas the other incorrect answer was: -

The opposite of deform is unbend

You said: spread

deform means "cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular form"
unbend means "free from flexure"

In geology the opposite of deformation is spread.

Those two should certainly not have been in the same game together.

Another day, another pair of synonyms turn up, this time the words are dysphoric and unpleasantly and as usual I got them wrong.

from part III

disambiguate is related to clarify

You said: take shape

disambiguate means "state unambiguously or remove ambiguities from"
clarify means "make clear and (more) comprehensible"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

bead is related to take shape

You said: clarify

bead means "form into beads, as of water or sweat, for example"
take shape means "develop into a distinctive entity"

I had these in Part 3 of set 17 today:

cable railway is related to railroad

cable railway means "a railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable and having counterbalancing ascending and descending cars"
railroad means "line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a railway system"

metro is related to railway line

metro means "electric underground railway"
railway line means "line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a railway system"

I got them right, and I can see why they are the way they are, but I think perhaps they should not be in the same set.

Today I had shlemiel, muggins, simpleton and clown to match up. Naturally, I got them the wrong way round. The definitions given are interchangeable. *sigh*

More synonyms:

race car is related to auto
You said: automotive vehicle


go-kart is related to automotive vehicle
You said: auto

I had resolved not to post the questionable relationships I've been getting in the third section, but this one from the antonyms section is just ridiculous:

------

The opposite of noble is Lady

noble means "a titled peer of the realm"
Lady means "a woman of the peerage in Britain"

------

Um, what? This was the obvious choice based on the process of elimination, but "noble" and "Lady" are not antonyms, even by the definitions in the database.

Indeed, but I've had husband and wife as antonyms. Wait and see if pepper is (according to Mind Melt) the antonym of salt...

This from the antonyms:

The opposite of observably is perceptibly

observably means "in an imperceptible manner or to an imperceptible degree"
perceptibly means "in a noticeable manner"


I think "unobservably" means in an imperceptible manner, and "observably" would be a synonym of "perceptibly".

I got it right by process of elimination, but it should probably be fixed.

Thanks!

Sue

I raised this back in October on page 2. Even looney_tunes agreed with me, which I thought would merit a correction...