Good CD-Rom Thesaurus?

Rarri · Feb 7, 2009

Evening all

Hopefully this is on the right board!

I'm thinking of getting a thesaurus which is can either buy as a CD-Rom or subscribe to online (for access), but i'm wondering if there's one which is particularly good or if there are some that should be avoided at all costs?

Any help much appreciated!

Linda Adams · Feb 7, 2009

How about a free online one?

http://thesaurus.reference.com/

Deleted member 42 · Feb 7, 2009

In all seriousness, thesauri are not really a great idea; you really are much better off with a dictionary, in most cases. There are a couple of reasons--among them the problem that thesauri don't really indicate register and provenance. All synonyms are treated as equally valid, and in a language as copious as English, that's a realy problem.

alleycat · Feb 7, 2009

First a question, for what purpose are you going to use a thesaurus?

We get into the thesaurus good/thesaurus bad discussion here every so often. There are appropriate uses for a thesaurus, and ones that are not so good. I used to drag my old Roget's out two or three times a year, generally for something related to business ("This is not quite the word I want to use; what is the word I want to use?" In other words, I used it more as a memory jogger than to find a unique word.), but I didn't drag it out to come up with a "writerly" word for my fiction.

Unless you're in some kind of specialized field, I can't imagine you needing to subscribe to an online thesaurus service. As Linda mentioned, there are thesauri online that will serve 99.8% of the people who need a thesaurus.

Rarri · Feb 7, 2009

I'd like the option of access without being online.

I've not considered that i use a thesaurus in order to look up 'writerly' words, but they provide a better basis for looking up synonyms than a dictionary generally does. I use mine a fair bit when my mind decides to go blank when looking for the right word, not necessarily the writerly word. It's certainly not a matter of looking up a thesaurus and copy and pasting, but looking for 'inspiration' (if you want to look at it that way), i find a thesaurus really useful and i cross-reference with a dictionary if i'm not 100% certain of the meaning, usage or etymology.

Rarri · Feb 7, 2009

Should probably add that i have a 'real' thesaurus to hand, but i'd like to have the 'freedom' of a computer based one too.

Good CD-Rom Thesaurus?

Rarri

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

Deleted member 42

alleycat

Still around

Rarri

Rarri