With so many words that sound the same how can we tell the difference!

Homonyms are words that sound the same.

Ex: mat and matte

Since these are often the most confusing in this list (no matter how long you've been studying English), here is a video as well! (Note: the teacher in the video is using British English, but many of her examples are still valid!)

Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meanings.

Ex: find - discover, catch

To find synonyms we use a thesaurus.

Last but most certainly not least, antonyms are words that mean the opposite of each other.

Ex: hot and cold

Fortunately for us, most online thesauruses also include antonyms at the end of each entry!

The video below contains lots of examples of antonyms. Yes, it is from Sesame Street, but it illustrates this point well.