Q: What is my favorite Dinosaur? A: the Thesaurus!
I know that’s pretty cheesy, but it is also quite true. I love my Thesaurus. It provides me with endless help and illumination that expands my knowledge in all sorts of things.
After reading “The enduring delight of the dictionary” in the September 2022 issue of Reader’s digest, I realized the Thesaurus is my field guide to expanding my knowledge about words and increasing my vocabulary for poetry.
A dictionary provides resources for spelling words correctly and learning word meanings. It tells me if the word is a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, article or preposition. It gives me the origin of the word and helps with pronunciation. A dictionary denotes the definition of a word.
On the other hand, a Thesaurus provides connotation. It gives me a wealth of synonyms and related concepts. It is a treasury of unusual and under-used words. When I want a similar word with more or fewer syllables, this is the place. When I want a word that means the same as the word I have, but with a different sound or melody, this is the place. It means I don’t have to repeat the same word over and over throughout my poem. It is my ‘go to’ when I’m searching for just the right word.
A Thesaurus introduces me to new words or suggest words I already know. For example, “fat” might be what I begin with, but “plump” may connote a softer, more grandmotherly quality; “portly” or “chunky” seems more like a grandfather. “Bloated” may provide an idea of illness, whereas “corpulent” reverts me back to “fat”. Yet, I might also go with “expanded”, “increased”, or “swollen” to create a different meaning to “fat”.
A Thesaurus can also take the place of a dictionary. When I look up the word I want to know about, I find many other words that are related to the word I’m looking up. They help me create more interesting and effective articles. Sometimes one of the other words is a better fit for what I want to say.
I use the Thesaurus for research, as well as poetry. A thesaurus can help expand the way that you discuss your topic because it contains groupings of words that are collected in terms of their meaning. I often find a better word in the list provided by the Thesaurus. It also helps me adjust the tone of my wording so that the I am more accurate in the telling.
For me, the Thesaurus is a secret weapon in my use of language. I use it for writing and creating poetry but, I find those unusual words creeping into my conversation, as well.
I invite you to check out a Thesaurus today.
The Thesaurus provides many alternative words:
(numerous, a great/good deal of, a lot of, a large/great number of, great quantities of, plenty of, countless, innumerable, scores of, crowds of, droves of, an army of, a horde of, a multitude, a multiplicity, multitudinous, numberless, multiple, untold; several, various, sundry, diverse, assorted, multifarious; copious, abundant, profuse, an abundance of, a profusion of; frequent; informal lots of, umpteen, eleventy, loads of, masses of, stacks of, scads of, heaps of, piles of, bags of, tons of, oodles of, dozens of, hundreds of, thousands of, millions of, billions of, zillions of, more … than one can shake a stick at; British informal shedload; North American informal a slew of, gazillions of, bazillions of, gobs of; Australian New Zealand informal a swag of; vulgar slang a shitload of; literary myriad, divers.) – from my computer’s Apple dictionary, version 2.3.0 copywrite @2005-2021 Apple Inc.