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  1. thesaurus love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A book of synonyms, often including related and contrasting words and antonyms.
  2. n. A book of selected words or concepts, such as a specialized vocabulary of a particular field, as of medicine or music.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A treasury; a store; especially, thesaurus verborum, or simply thesaurus, a treasury of words; a lexicon.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A publication, usually in the form of book, that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms) for the words of a given language.
  2. n. archaic A dictionary or encyclopedia.
  3. n. information science A hierarchy of subject headings—canonic titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A treasury or storehouse; hence, a repository, especially of knowledge; -- often applied to a comprehensive work, like a dictionary or cyclopedia.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a book containing a classified list of synonyms

Etymologies

  1. 16th century, from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsauros, "storehouse, treasure"); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852 (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin thēsaurus, treasury, from Greek thēsauros. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “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

  • “A lot of people seem to think the ability to use a thesaurus is all it takes to be a good writer.”

    Tragedy of the Commons

  • “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.”

    Stephen King’s Greatest Lesson for Writers | Write to Done

  • “From Stephen King: Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.”

    Quote of the Day

  • “Yes, but does Blethen know what a thesaurus is and how to use it?”

    Sound Politics: In which I join the MSM

  • “Great - somebody got a freakin thesaurus and a word of the day calendar for christmas.”

    The Confusion

  • “The word thesaurus, as we are continually told in the prefaces to books dealing with synonyms, comes from the Greek word meaning ` treasury. ”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 4

  • “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.”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 3

  • “Of course, if you are looking for synonyms then a thesaurus is a wonderful guide, the most famous being Roget’s Thesaurus.”

    The right rites of writing « Write Anything

  • “Caitlin ...... [keekee jo] says: not to cheating i mean to byron the "thesaurus" - a small dinosaur that often uses fluttery language to extracate itself from possibly harmful situations says: im trying to find a way to put this so if i dont get it right the first time i'll try again later”

    question game gone awry

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. dictionary
  1. synonymicon

same context (10)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. therdpylae
  2. thewhite
  1. k
  2. m
  1. endif
  2. l
  1. objectionableness
  2. phrase book
  1. colophon
  2. swordfight

rhymes (12)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Doris
  2. Horace
  1. Horus
  2. Morris
  1. Taurus
  2. brontosaurus
  1. chorus
  2. morris
  1. porous
  2. sorus
  1. stegosaurus
  2. tyrannosaurus

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. word finder
  1. wordfinder
  1. thesaurus
  1. Roget
  1. peter mark roget
  1. treasury

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. language
  1. list
  1. synonym
  1. ccvcvvcvc
  1. facetious

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

tagging (27)

Words tagged ‘thesaurus’

  1. aloof
  2. angel
  3. anxious
  4. beautiful
  5. chagrin
  1. chuckle
  2. coherent
  3. crimson
  4. dazzle
  5. dictionary
  1. glorious
  2. god-like
  3. grimace
  4. irrevocably
  5. kismet
  1. lope
  2. marble
  3. masochistic
  4. perfect
  5. scintillating
  1. smirk
  2. smolder
  3. smoldering
  4. sparkle
  5. tightened
  1. topaz
  2. whispered

Wordmap

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘thesaurus’.

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Comments

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  • milosrdenstvi From the Greek word meaning "treasury". Dec 29, 2010

  • bilby http://owni.eu/files/2010/12/bent17.jpg"> Dec 29, 2010

  • reesetee Rock and Roll, Thesaurusized. Aug 20, 2009

  • PossibleUnderscore 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
    Jul 19, 2009

  • bilby Welcome. Jul 19, 2009

  • sionnach 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. Jul 23, 2008

  • whichbe What's a synonym for "thesaurus"?
    May 6, 2008

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‘thesaurus’ has been looked up 4336 times, loved by 1 person, added to 19 lists, commented on 7 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.