18th January - Thesaurus Day

Thesaurus Day (18th January 2018)

This week we look briefly at how a thesaurus can help you in your college work and show you where to find one.

What is a thesaurus?

Oxford Dictionaries define a thesaurus as a book that lists words in groups of synonyms and related concepts.

The most famous thesaurus is probably Roget's Thesaurus.

A thesaurus will help you find words that mean the same (synonyms) or similar as a particular word. (You may also find opposites). This can help when you are trying not to repeat the same word in a sentence, an essay or presentation and you want a different word to make the sentence read better.

A thesaurus will help you with similar keywords when using a search engine or looking for information in a library catalogue or online resource. (In this example "look for" would be found alongside "search").

A thesaurus can help you build your vocabulary as it will teach you new words, but in this case it is best to look at examples of how the word is used in sentences and to check a dictionary definition first before you use it (see pitfalls below).

How to use a thesaurus

If using a printed thesaurus, you need to find the word for which you want alternatives at the back of the book first (a sort of index). This gives you a page number where you find the group of similar and related words. The LRC has some thesauri at shelfmark 424.

The LRC provides access to the Oxford Paperback Thesaurus (4th edition) as part of it's subscription to Oxford Reference Online (a collection of online specialist Dictionaries). You will need to log in with your network login and password and search for the thesaurus. Then use the box on the left hand side to search for the word within the publication or alternatively use the letters A- Z across the screen to navigate. LRC staff can also help you.

Microsoft Word also has a built in thesaurus feature which may be useful (but is not extensive). Just right click on the word for which you want an alternative and select "synonyms" to see a list of possible words.

A free online thesaurus you can trust is
Collins Thesaurus  (www.roget.org does not appear to be the genuine publication online!).

The pifalls of using a thesaurus

There can be problems with using alternative words from a thesaurus especially if they are words you have not heard of before. Some words have more than one meaning and you need to make sure you use the right one.
The video below explains (albeit simply) the layout of a thesaurus entry and how to use it wisely and make sure you choose the right words.