Dictionaries & Thesauri: Thesauri

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What's a Thesaurus?

A thesaurus:

  • gives synonyms for a word, rather than listing its various meanings.
  • are excellent for helping you find the right word for exactly what your mean
  • help you say similar things without repeating the same word
  • some give antonyms (opposites) and related terms
  • most thesauri are organized like dictionaries

Thesauri Online

Below are three free, online thesauri.  Quick and easy!

Find a Thesaurus in Print

  1. Go to the Advanced Keyword Search screen below.
  2. Enter thesaurus in the first search window and click on Submit.
  3. To get fewer and more recent hits, enter a date range under "Limit to," such as 2000 to 2015. Change "Search and Sort" to "Date."  Click on Submit.

Here are two examples from the Raynor Reference collection: 

MARQCAT Advanced Keyword Search

Please fill in the form, select limits, and click Search

Use Visuwords as a Thesaurus

See the network of meanings.