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View synonyms for tantamount

tantamount

[ tan-tuh-mount ]

adjective

  1. equivalent, as in value, force, effect, or signification:

    His angry speech was tantamount to a declaration of war.



tantamount

/ ˈtæntəˌmaʊnt /

adjective

  1. postpositivefoll byto as good (as); equivalent in effect (to)

    his statement was tantamount to an admission of guilt



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Word History and Origins

Origin of tantamount1

First recorded in 1635–45; adjective use of obsolete noun, “that which amounts to as much, something equivalent,” itself a noun use of an obsolete verb, “to amount to as much,” from Anglo-French tant amunter or Italian tanto montare “to amount to as much,” from Latin tantum, neuter of adjective tantus “of such size, so great”; tanto, amount

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tantamount1

C17: basically from Anglo-French tant amunter to amount to as much, from tant so much + amunter to amount

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Synonym Study

See equal.

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Example Sentences

To this aide, these attacks were tantamount to “asking to intervene on the side of ISIS.”

Turing was offered the option of two years in prison or oestrogen injections—tantamount to chemical castration.

He was given the choice of two years in prison or oestrogen injections, tantamount to chemical castration.

Being shamed by her church was tantamount to losing her community and her job.

For them the 18-day search for the Israeli teens and the manhunt for their captors was tantamount to collective punishment.

The alterations were indeed small; but the alteration even of a letter was tantamount to a declaration of independence.

Witness his conception, in The Broken Heart, of a loveless marriage as tantamount to adultery.

To try and compel them to pay was tantamount to placing liberty and even life in jeopardy.

Indeed, to call a work of art purely and simply "scientific," is tantamount to saying that it is dry and uninspired by the muse.

Now this would be tantamount to conceiving the definition of a thing that did not exist, which is impossible.

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tantalus monkeytantara