How To Use a Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a writer's best friend. How many times have you been vigorously pounding on your keyboard, only to stop yourself mid-sentence because you realize you've used a certain word five times in that paragraph already? Variety makes for exciting reading. And reading a word over and over is a redundancy that most readers would rather not have.

There are essentially three types of thesauruses. One is the traditional type, another is the dictionary type, and the last is the computer.

• Dictionary type. We first discuss the dictionary type thesaurus, because this is most commonly found and used in school libraries and thesauruses. This type of thesaurus has words arranged alphabetically, and you just look for the word of interest as you would in a dictionary. For example, if you want to find synonyms for "nice," you can browse for it alphabetically-under "N"-and you will then be given a list of related words. The thesaurus would show both synonyms and antonyms.

  However, for some words that might have more possible matches, you might be referred to another word, and you would have to look it up alphabetically, too.

• The traditional type. A traditional type thesaurus contains an index at the end. One issue with dictionary type thesauruses is the duplication of words. For instance, an entry for "nice" might have the same content as the entry for "beautiful." And you have a lot of cross-references. A traditional type thesaurus would only have one entry for each word.

  You look up a word by going through the index first, which is arranged alphabetically. You then go to the corresponding page where the word can be found, and there you will see the synonyms, antonyms and related words.
• Computer. Most word processors have built-in thesauruses. For example, in Microsoft word, you just right-click (or CMD-click in a Mac) on a word, highlight "Synonyms" in the context menu, and choose from among synonyms. To expand the choices, you can click "Thesaurus" among the choices.

One word of caution, though. Just because words are listed in a thesaurus as synonyms, this doesn't mean you can use them interchangeably at all instances. Words can be related, but not have exactly the same meaning. You have to rely on context and applicability before choosing a word.

For example, the word "nice" is listed under Word's thesaurus as synonymous to "kind." You can most definitely substitute this when referring to persons. "He's a nice kid" is the same as "He's a kind kid." But while you can say "It's a nice day," it's silly to say "It's a kind day."

Still, the reason behind using a thesaurus is to get a list of possible choices to replace or substitute any given word you intend to use. A thesaurus is an excellent way to expand your vocabulary. Regular use of a thesaurus will help you think of more words as substitutes. Once you get the hang of it, you won't even have the need to use a thesaurus.