{"id":100741,"date":"2025-01-17T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/17\/january-18-is-national-thesaurus-day-top-three-ways-to-use-your-thesaurus\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T02:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T10:32:00","slug":"january-18-is-national-thesaurus-day-top-three-ways-to-use-your-thesaurus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/17\/january-18-is-national-thesaurus-day-top-three-ways-to-use-your-thesaurus\/","title":{"rendered":"January 18 Is National Thesaurus Day: Top Three Ways to Use Your Thesaurus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get To the Point recommends three ways to honor Peter Mark Roget, not just on his birthday but every day you write.
\nThe post January 18 Is National Thesaurus Day: Top Three Ways to Use Your Thesaurus appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers.<\/p>\n

Why do we celebrate National Thesaurus Day on January 18? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"what's
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everybody reading this post has no doubt heard of Roget\u2019s Thesaurus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Peter Mark Roget was an English physician. He was born on January 18, 1779. You\u2019ll need a big cake for the 246 candles you\u2019ll need to celebrate his birthday. After 47 years spent compiling data classifying words according to their meaning, in 1852, Roget published the \u201cThesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get To the Point recommends three ways to honor Peter Mark Roget, not just on his birthday, National Thesaurus Day, but every day you write.<\/p>\n

Use MS Word\u2019s Thesaurus Tool<\/h2>\n

If you want to change up your vocabulary when you find yourself repeatedly using the same word, highlight that word and right-click. Word will offer some synonyms.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t like any of those? Click on Thesaurus at the bottom of the list to see a lot more choices. Even then, your options are pretty limited.<\/p>\n

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Select the word you want to change, click on Synomyns to view Word\u2019s suggested alternatives, or Click on Thesaurus to reveal additional choices.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This basic technique works for single words \u2014 for phrases, not so much.<\/p>\n

Go to a Thesaurus Website<\/h2>\n

Maybe you already regularly use Dictionary.com to find definitions. A different tab in the same app brings up www.thesaurus.com<\/a>. Or just keystroke the website name to go there directly. You can request synonyms for a single word or a phrase. The search result will offer several options to choose from or for further exploration.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, go to www.merriam-webster.com\/thesaurus<\/a> to use that dictionary publisher\u2019s thesaurus website. (They also have great games<\/a> on the site.) Like Thesaurus.com, you can search for a phrase as well as a single word and choose from several categories of output.<\/p>\n

The Merriam-Webster site has a neat feature where you can type in a sentence and get a custom synonym suggestion. Looking for a synonym for \u201canimal\u201d in a specific context, I input \u201cHorace\u2019s contribution to the marketing discussion was a different animal altogether.\u201d Merriam-Webster suggested: \u201cHorace\u2019s contribution to the marketing discussion was a different matter altogether.\u201d The closest suggestion from Thesaurus.com that could be used in this context was \u201cthing,\u201d but that was just one of a list of synonyms.<\/p>\n

Break Out the Actual Book<\/h2>\n

Of course, you should have a thesaurus on your bookshelf along with a physical dictionary and style guide<\/a>. A real thesaurus will offer way more possibilities, including synonyms for phrasal terms. Besides plain old \u201cget,\u201d my physical thesaurus offered 33 other versions, including get across, get ahead, get along, get around, get at, get away with, get on and get over. (While there are several versions of Roget\u2019s, the latest version is the Roget\u2019s International Thesaurus, 8th Edition<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

All-Purpose Advice<\/h2>\n

With any of these suggestions, your hunt for the perfect word is not limited to a single search. When you find a word that is close to what you want, click on it or turn to the page to see more possibilities. Don\u2019t get too carried away, of course, you want to come across as erudite, not clueless.<\/a><\/p>\n

For more tips on making the most of your thesaurus, read \u201cA Thesaurus Is More Than a Word Processing Feature<\/a>\u201d and \u201cYou Want to Come Across as Erudite, Not Clueless.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Dad Joke in Honor of Peter Mark Roget<\/h2>\n

Which prehistoric animal knew the most words?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The thesaurus, of course.<\/p>\n

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\"Order<\/a><\/figure>\n
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More Writing Tips<\/a><\/h2>\n

Find more good ideas for improving your legal writing and communications skills in \u201cGet to the Point\u201d by Teddy Snyder. <\/p>\n

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READ MORE \u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Photo \u00a9 <\/small><\/small>iStockPhoto.com<\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t miss out on our daily practice management tips.<\/strong> Subscribe to Attorney at Work\u2019s free newsletter <\/strong>here ><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get To the Point recommends three ways to honor Peter Mark Roget, not just on his birthday but every day you write. The post January 18 Is National Thesaurus Day: Top Three Ways to Use Your Thesaurus appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers. Why do we celebrate National Thesaurus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}