Gradable antonyms

(1) The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning; words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. Words do not contrast each other only on a single dimension; in fact, oppositeness can be found on different dimensions and different kinds of antonyms have been recognized. (2) Gradable antonyms are antonyms that are gradable because there are often intermediate forms betweent the two members of a pair. For example, “old” and “young” are immediately recognized as antonyms, but they stand for two extremes, between which there exist intermediate forms representing differing degrees of being old or young, such as “middle-aged”, “mature,” “elderly”.