moderate vs mild

[Sun14]

Hello, my friends,

I was wondering whether they are synonyms and can be used interchangeably:

1) As an antonyms to forceful word, it is mild/moderate word.

2) Teddy turned to Mona with a look of moderate/mild confusion.

 

[entangledbank]

'Moderate' is more in the middle (therefore a bit stronger) than 'mild'. In medicine they talk about mild to moderate depression, mild to moderate pain, and so on. Moderate isn't bad, but it's more than mild.

 

[PaulQ]

No. They are not good synonyms.

 

[Sun14]

Thank you very much. How about the choices of word in the sentence 1) and 2).

 

[PaulQ]

1. is terrible - it has errors
2. is OK

 

[suzi br]

2) Teddy turned to Mona with a look of moderate/mild confusion.

I cannot imagine moderate confusion, it sounds odd to me, mild confusion sounds OK.

 

[PaulQ]

I can, it's just a bit more than mild confusion...

 

[JamesM]

I agree with PaulQ. The scale for me would be mild / moderate / extreme confusion.

 

[Sun14]

I agree with PaulQ. The scale for me would be mild / moderate / extreme confusion.

I was wonder the technical term for the antonym of forceful word. Is it mild word or moderate word?

 

[Sun14]

Thanks for all your kind replies.