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# thesaurus

«thesaurus» in Mova's school dictionary: **a book or website that lists words grouped with others of…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a thesaurus, thesauruses or thesauri)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A thesaurus is a book or website that lists words grouped with others of similar meaning (synonyms), and sometimes opposite meaning (antonyms). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#m1)

2) You use it to find a better or more exact word. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In English lessons a thesaurus helps make writing more interesting: instead of «said», you might find «whispered», «shouted» or «muttered». Pupils learn to check the meaning in a dictionary, because synonyms are not always exact matches. Phrases: «look it up in a thesaurus», «use a thesaurus», «online thesaurus».

### examples

- I used a thesaurus to find another word for «big». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x1)
- The thesaurus gave «enormous», «huge» and «gigantic». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x2)
- Check the meaning in a dictionary before using a word from the thesaurus. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x3)
- My thesaurus lists antonyms too. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x4)
- Instead of «nice», the thesaurus suggested «kind», «pleasant» and «lovely». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x5)
- The class shared one thesaurus per table. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x6)
- A dinosaur called «Thesaurus» is a common classroom joke. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/#x7)

### note

Countable. Plural: thesauruses or thesauri. Said «thi-SOR-us». A dictionary explains meanings; a thesaurus gives similar words. Trap: a word from a thesaurus may not fit your sentence, for example «colossal» for a «big» mistake is fine, but not for a «big sister».

### In the corpora

- [A thesaurus gives words with similar meanings, but not every synonym fits the sentence or the reader.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/12/)
- [You've been arguing with a thesaurus for fifteen minutes."](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «thesaurus» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thesaurus/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.