Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A book of synonyms, often including related and contrasting words and antonyms.
- noun A book of selected words or concepts, such as a specialized vocabulary of a particular field, as of medicine or music.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A treasury; a store; especially, thesaurus verborum, or simply thesaurus, a treasury of words; a lexicon.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A treasury or storehouse; hence, a repository, especially of knowledge; -- often applied to a comprehensive work, like a dictionary or cyclopedia.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
publication , usually in the form of abook , that providessynonyms (and sometimesantonyms ) for thewords of a givenlanguage . - noun archaic A
dictionary orencyclopedia . - noun information science A hierarchy of subject headings—canonic titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a book containing a classified list of synonyms
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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First there is a dig about people who write pretentiously: in blogworld, demonstrable ownership of a thesaurus is shorthand for 'good writing style'
Bitchy Jones's Diary 2008
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A lot of people seem to think the ability to use a thesaurus is all it takes to be a good writer.
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Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.
Stephen King’s Greatest Lesson for Writers | Write to Done 2008
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From Stephen King: Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.
Quote of the Day Bill Crider 2007
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From Stephen King: Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.
Archive 2007-09-02 Bill Crider 2007
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Yes, but does Blethen know what a thesaurus is and how to use it?
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Great - somebody got a freakin thesaurus and a word of the day calendar for christmas.
The Confusion 2004
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The word thesaurus, as we are continually told in the prefaces to books dealing with synonyms, comes from the Greek word meaning ` treasury. '
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Dissatisfied with the stilted term thesaurus, he cast about for the mot juste and happily came up with promptory (derived from a Medieval Latin word meaning ` storehouse, repository ') as a better name for a book constructed for prompt reference and to prompt those who search for the right word.
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Of course, if you are looking for synonyms then a thesaurus is a wonderful guide, the most famous being Roget’s Thesaurus.
whichbe commented on the word thesaurus
What's a synonym for "thesaurus"?
May 7, 2008
sionnach commented on the word thesaurus
thesaurus: A book, publication, volume, manuscript, opus in which one finds, seeks, searches, locates, traces, ferrets for a synonym, alternative, equivalent, similar, substitute word, lexeme, term.
July 23, 2008
bilby commented on the word thesaurus
Welcome.
July 19, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word thesaurus
Nice sign bilby!!
Synonyms of Thesaurus: glossary, language reference book, lexicon, onomasticon, reference book, sourcebook, storehouse of words, terminology, treasury of words, vocabulary, word list
July 19, 2009
reesetee commented on the word thesaurus
Rock and Roll, Thesaurusized.
August 20, 2009
bilby commented on the word thesaurus
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word thesaurus
From the Greek word meaning "treasury".
December 30, 2010