Thesaurus Skills

A thesaurus is a book or online tool that helps you find words with similar meanings. If you use the word happy too many times, a thesaurus can suggest words like joyful, cheerful, or glad. Using a thesaurus makes your writing more interesting and helps you say exactly what you mean.

How to Use a Thesaurus

Look up the word you want to replace. The thesaurus will give you a list of synonyms, which are words with similar meanings. It may also list antonyms, which are words with opposite meanings. Choose the synonym that best fits your sentence. Not every synonym will work in every situation.

Tips for Using a Thesaurus

Always check that the word you choose makes sense in your sentence. A thesaurus might suggest the word enormous as a synonym for big, but that would sound strange if you just want to say a big smile. If you are not sure about a word, look it up in a dictionary first.

Fun Facts

• The word thesaurus comes from a Greek word meaning treasure or storehouse.
• Roget's Thesaurus, first published in 1852, is one of the most famous reference books ever made.
• Many word processing programs have a built-in thesaurus you can use while writing.

Did You Know?

Peter Mark Roget started collecting lists of related words when he was just a young man and spent over 50 years working on his thesaurus.