[f. SYNONYMOUS: see -ITY.] The quality or fact of being synonymous, or having the same meaning.
1880. J. Morison, in Expositor, XI. 468. Metaphysical coincidence by no means necessitates the rhetorical synonymity of nomenclature.
1884. N. & Q., 6th Ser. X. 43/2. To point out the Germanic origin of his [sc. Garibaldi’s] name and its synonymity with Shakspere.
b. transf. Identity of nature of things having different names (e.g., tones in a musical scale, or geological formations); cf. SYNONYMOUS 1 c.
1875. Ellis, in Helmholtz’s Sensations of Tone, App. 659. To found any harmonic theories on the synonymity of tones in any temperament, when there is known to be no synonymity in nature.
1896. Naturalist, 210. The synonymity of the Lincoln Carstone and the Norfolk Limestones.
