Gourt > Kids and Teens > School Time > Reference Tools > Thesauri
The word thesaurus is derived from 16th century New Latin, in turn from Latin thesaurus, from ancient Greek thesauros, "store-house", "treasury". Besides its meaning as a treasury or storehouse, it more commonly means a listing of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings (this new meaning of thesaurus dates back to Roget's Thesaurus). For example, a book of jargon for a specialized field; or more technically a list of subject headings and cross-references used in the filing and retrieval of documents (or indeed papers, certificates, letters, cards, records, texts, files, articles, essays and perhaps even manuscripts), film, sound recordings, machine-readable media, etc.
The first example of this genre, Roget's Thesaurus, was published in 1852, having been compiled earlier, in 1805, by Peter Roget. Entries in Roget's Thesaurus are not listed alphabetically but conceptually and are a great resource for writers.
Although including synonyms and antonyms, entries in a thesaurus should not be taken as a list of them. The entries are also designed for drawing distinctions between similar words and assisting in choosing exactly the right word. Nor does a thesaurus entry define words. That work is left to the dictionary.
More on [ Thesaurus ]
THESAURI: SOLECISM; yelp! OFFSHOOT, mortality TALKATIVE? LOVABLY-SECRETARY-GENERAL = PROFESSOR = cosmologist.
iamarigbytoo (rigbette) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:45:20 -0000
THESAURI: SOLECISM; yelp! OFFSHOOT, mortality TALKATIVE? LOVABLY-SECRETARY-GENERAL = PROFESSOR = cosmologist.
@pixpaw Thesauri can be too restrictive; may you unconsciously already hold the key?
MrsSymbols (Clare Gibson) Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:28:54 -0000
@pixpaw Thesauri can be too restrictive; may you unconsciously already hold the key?
@larinzia Good plan. Thesauri are your friends.
brendanm720 (Brendan) Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:58:27 -0000
@larinzia Good plan. Thesauri are your friends.
Mathematical Thesaurus - Defines mathematical words and concepts, and indicates the links between them.
Phrase Finder - Enter a single word and it will return a list of phrases and sayings that are related to the word in some way.
Meta Description: [ An archive of the meanings and origins of thousands of phrases, sayings and idioms. ]
Roget's II - The New Thesaurus - Contains 35,000 synonyms, succinct word definitions and a hyperlinked category index.
Meta Description: [ Contains 35,000 synonyms and over 250,000 cross-references in an easy-to-use format. ]
Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases - 85,000 hyperlinked cross-references, plus proverbs and quotations from classic and modern authors.
Meta Description: [ Mawson, C.O. Sylvester. 1922. Rogets International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases ]
Thesaurus.com - Searchable online version of Roget's Thesaurus of English words and phrases.
Meta Description: [ Free online Roget's Thesaurus of the English Language. ]
Wordsmyth - A dictionary and thesaurus in one. Also gives parts of speech and examples for more than 50,000 words.
WWWebster Thesaurus - Searchable online thesaurus from Merriam-Webster.
Meta Description: [ Merriam-Webster provides a free online dictionary, thesaurus, audio pronunciations, Word of the Day, word games, and other English language resources. ]
| Reference | |
| Next Video | |
