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Thesaurus
The word thesaurus is New Latin for treasure; coined in the early 1820's. Besides its meaning as a treasury or storehouse, it more commonly means a listing of words with similar or related meanings. For example, a book of jargon for a specialized field; or more generally a list of subject headings and cross-references used in the filing and retrieval of documents. (Or indeed papers, certificates, letters, cards, records, texts, files, articles, essays and perhaps even manuscripts.)
The first example of this genre, Roget's Thesaurus, was published in 1852, having been compiled earlier, in 1805, by Peter Roget.
Although including synonyms, entries in a thesaurus should not be taken as a list of synonyms. The entries are also designed for drawing distinctions between similar words and assisting in choosing exactly the right word. Nor does a thesaurus entry define words. That work is left to the dictionary.
In Information Technology, a thesaurus represents a database or list of semantically orthogonal topical search keys. In the field of Artificial Intelligence, a thesaurus may sometimes be referred to as an ontology.
Examples
- Thesaurus of English Words & Phrases (ed. P. Roget); ISBN 0062720376, see: Roget's Thesaurus.
- Webster's New World Thesaurus (ed. C. Laird); ISBN 0671519832
- Oxford American Desk Thesaurus (ed. C. Lindberg); ISBN 0195126742
- Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier; ISBN 0679400303, an unusual blend of thesaurus, dictionary, and glossary.
Specialized
- Evaluation Thesaurus (by. M. Scriven); ISBN 0803943644
- Great Song Thesaurus (by R. Lax & F. Smith); ISBN 0195054083
- Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (APA); ISBN 1557987750
- Clinician's Thesaurus, (by E.Zuckerman); ISBN 157230569X
External Links
See also: Dictionary
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Roget's II - The New Thesaurus
Contains 35,000 synonyms, succinct word definitions and a hyperlinked category index.
http://www.bartleby.com/62/
WWWebster Thesaurus
Searchable online thesaurus from Merriam-Webster.
http://www.m-w.com/thesaurus.htm
Wordsmyth
A dictionary and thesaurus in one. Also gives parts of speech and examples for more than 50,000 words.
http://www.wordsmyth.net/
Mathematical Thesaurus
Defines mathematical words and concepts, and indicates the links between them.
http://thesaurus.maths.org/
Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
85,000 hyperlinked cross-references, plus proverbs and quotations from classic and modern authors.
http://www.bartleby.com/110/
Phrase Finder
Enter a single word and it will return a list of phrases and sayings that are related to the word in some way.
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/
Thesaurus.com
Searchable online version of Roget's Thesaurus of English words and phrases.
http://thesaurus.reference.com/
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