Tips on Using a Thesaurus - steveshapero.com

Tips on Using a Thesaurus

A thesaurus is like a dictionary, except that its main emphasis is helping the
student to find a word to substitute for another. Suppose you have written a
sentence and you don’t like one of the words you used. A thesaurus can help you
come up with a better word. Sometimes you might come up with a whole different
phrase or you will restructure your sentence as a result of finding a different word.

When do we use a thesaurus?

1. When a word is not descriptive enough. For example, if you write “the fish
tasted very good,” but you would prefer to use a more descriptive word than
good, a thesaurus might help you find your way to using the word delicious or
delectable. This might cause you to change your phrase to, “the fish had a most
delectable flavor.”

2. When a word is repeated too close to the same word. For example, “Shelly was
dreading last night’s homework; however, she was determined to spend at least
three hours on her homework..” The word homework is used twice in the same
sentence. A good strategy would be to replace its second use with the word,
assignment.

How do we use a thesaurus?

Look for a Synonym
We would hope that the thesaurus would list the word for which we want to find a
substitute; however, it is not always that straight-forward. Sometimes we have to
think of another word to look up rather than the word we wish to replace. For
example, “A good time was had by all at the kite picnic.” We may wish to
substitute a word for had in that phrase; however, some thesauri may not even list
the word had. One option is to look up the word had or have. This may or may
not provide a suitable substitute. Sometimes we have to try to come up with a
more descriptive word on our own. Consider the word enjoyed. “A good time was
enjoyed by all.” This would be a very suitable replacement itself; however, now
you can look up enjoy in your thesaurus and find other suitable words, such as
benefit, treasure, relish. You might reconstruct your phrase like this, “The people
treasured the time they spent flying their kites.”

Sometimes you cannot find the word in a thesaurus you are attempting to replace.
Try looking up a synonym or another tense for that word in your thesaurus. For
example, if you cannot find “tasty”, try “taste”, or try “delicious.”

Look for an Antonym
Sometimes we have better luck thinking about a word that has the opposite
meaning of the one we are trying to find. For example, “The kite picnic was really
cool!” Knowing that cool is a non-descriptive and overused word, you seek to
replace it, but find that your thesaurus is less than helpful. If it lists the word cool
at all, it is likely to come up with synonyms like chilly, cold, frigid. This is not
where you want to go. However, you might think of an opposite meaning, such as
dull or boring. By looking these up, you might find a word you could use in your
sentence. For example, “The kite picnic was anything but dull.” Also, some
thesauri list antonyms, so if you look up dull, you might find some suitable
replacement words among its antonyms.

Using Words in a Sentence
Do not choose a word with which you are unfamiliar unless you find out how it is
used in a sentence. Dictionaries will sometimes use words in a sentence, but not
always. If you find a word you have not seen before, ask someone who is familiar
with it (like a parent or teacher) to use it in a sentence.

Restructuring Sentences
Sometimes a substituted word may sound better if the sentence is restructured. For
example you might wish to replace the word lucky in the following sentence:
George was lucky to find the golden coin. A thesaurus search leads you to the
word destiny, and you’d really like to use that word. Since destiny is a noun and
lucky is an adjective, you couldn’t just substitute one word for the other. However,
you could change your sentence to read: George concluded that finding the golden
coin was his destiny. Or, the following might sound even better: George sensed
that he was destined to find the golden coin. The sentences are really quite
different – being lucky is hap-hazard whereas being destined conjures up images of
something greater than yourself taking control.

Where to Find a Thesaurus

There are several thesauri in the classroom. If you don’t have a thesaurus available
to you at home, your computer is a good resource. (1) Your word processor most
likely has a thesaurus that you can pop up when you are positioned on a word you
wish to replace. (2) The Internet has several on-line thesauri. For example:
http://www.thesaurus.com. If you look up “thesaurus” using a search engine (like
www.google.com) you will find other websites that have online thesauri. Also,
you can go to my website: www.SteveShapero.com and click on
Student Links, then click on Student Resource Links.

Practicing with a Thesaurus

The following words appear in all of our classroom thesauri. Using one of our
thesauri, look up each of the following words and find other words you could
substitute for them. List any antonyms your thesaurus shows for these words. The
first is done for you.
sad _unhappy, melancholy, sorrowful, desolate, gloomy, glum, blue, mournful,
down in the mouth, miserable, discouraged, hopeless. ant: happy, glad, joyful
easy ____________________________________________________________
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funny ___________________________________________________________
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interesting ________________________________________________________
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many ____________________________________________________________

famous ___________________________________________________________