Antonymy is the technical name used to describe 'opposites', pairs of words such as rich / poor, love / hate and male / female. Antonyms are a ubiquitous part of everyday language, and this book provides a detailed, comprehensive account of the phenomenon. As well as re-appraising traditional semantic theory and re-evaluating existing categories of antonymy, the book raises wider issues, including questions such as: Where do new atonyms come from? Which pairs can be regarded as 'good opposites'? Why do atonyms tend to favour a particular sequence in text?