thesaurus

4 synonyms for thesaurus, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A reference book or website that groups words by meaning, so you can look up a word and find its synonyms and often its antonyms.

Synonyms

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

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Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun

A reference book or website that groups words by meaning, so you can look up a word and find its synonyms and often its antonyms.

“I keep a thesaurus open when I'm editing to avoid repeating myself.”

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2. noun

A controlled list of indexing terms and their relationships, used to catalogue and search a collection of documents.

“Articles are tagged using the library's medical subject thesaurus.”

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How to use thesaurus

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

look it up in a thesaurus thesaurus entry online thesaurus

Neutral. The plural is thesauruses in ordinary use and thesauri in more formal or academic writing; both are accepted.

Etymology

From Latin thesaurus 'treasure, treasury, storehouse', from Greek thesauros.

Full origin of thesaurus →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a thesaurus and a dictionary?

A dictionary is organised by headword and tells you what each word means, how it is pronounced and where it came from. A thesaurus is organised by meaning and gives you alternative words that express a similar idea. Writers use both together — the thesaurus to find a candidate, the dictionary to check it fits.

What is the plural of thesaurus?

Both thesauruses and thesauri are correct. Thesauruses is more common in everyday English; thesauri keeps the Latin plural and appears more in academic and library contexts.

Why is it called a thesaurus?

The word is Latin for treasury or storehouse, itself from Greek. The idea is a store of words you can draw on, and the sense of a hoard of treasure is the older meaning of the Latin term.

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