What is a Thesaurus?

As students and professionals alike become increasingly more exposed to the world of writing and research, the term “thesaurus” tends to crop up quite regularly; but many of us likely have only a vague understanding of what it actually is. In its essence, a thesaurus is a type of dictionary which lists words or phrases that have the same or similar meaning, and is greatly beneficial to have in any person’s arsenal of writing and learning tools.

Using a Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a great resource to have when one attempts to improve their writing by making it more diverse in its language. By consulting a thesaurus, a person can easily find and substitute words of similar meaning in order to modify the vocabulary used in their article or essay – providing that extra level of variety and detail which can truly make one’s writing feel more professional and specialized.

For instance, the phrase “reduce substantially” might be replaced by the thesaurus with the words “abate greatly” to give that extra level of expert touch to your writing. And there are countless other examples of how a thesaurus can be used to diversify one’s language and improve their writing.

Advantages of a Thesaurus

Aside from using a thesaurus to help expand your knowledge of different words and phrases, having one at hand also provides other marvellous benefits which are often overlooked. Generally speaking, when consulting a thesaurus, not only will you find a range of different words and phrases which can be used to express something that the writer is trying to communicate, but they will also be accompanied by the accompanying definition and their corresponding verb, adverb and noun forms. Therefore, when researching, one can build up a nice array of facts and figures and build their understanding of whatever topic they’re writing about.

In conclusion, a thesaurus is an invaluable asset for the writer and researcher that provides far more advantages than merely being able to find alternative words to convey something. Not only does it help to educate the user through providing descriptive explanations of words, it also helps to expand the size of one’s vocabulary and provide a platform to create a diverse range of writing styles and observations. All in all, a thesaurus has a great and varied number of uses that should not be overlooked.