A thesaurus ( pl. : thesauri or thesauruses ), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms , is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms , sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms . They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
36-569: ...to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed Synonym dictionaries have a long history. The word 'thesaurus' was used in 1852 by Peter Mark Roget for his Roget's Thesaurus . While some works called "thesauri", such as Roget's Thesaurus , group words in a hierarchical hypernymic taxonomy of concepts, others are organised alphabetically or in some other way. Most thesauri do not include definitions, but many dictionaries include listings of synonyms. Some thesauri and dictionary synonym notes characterise
72-497: A bill or score, ...; and adjectives: in debt, indebted, owing, .... Numbers in parentheses are cross-references to other Heads. The book starts with a Tabular Synopsis of Categories laying out the hierarchy, then the main body of the thesaurus listed by the Head, and then an alphabetical index listing the different Heads under which a word may be found: Liable, subject to , 177; debt , 806; duty , 926. Some recent versions have kept
108-572: A given meaning. It has the novel and unique goal of "charting the semantic development of the huge and varied vocabulary of English". Different senses of a word are listed separately. For example, three different senses of "debt" are listed in three different places in the taxonomy: A sum of money that is owed or due; a liability or obligation to pay An immaterial debt; is an obligation to do something An offence requiring expiation (figurative, Biblical) Other thesauri and synonym dictionaries are organized alphabetically. Most repeat
144-749: A son, John Lewis (1828–1908), and a daughter, Kate. In later life Roget became deaf and was cared for by his daughter, Kate. He died while on holiday in West Malvern , Worcestershire , aged 90. There is a memorial to him at his local parish church of St Mary on Paddington Green Church . Canadian writer Keath Fraser published a story, Roget's Thesaurus , in 1982, which is narrated in Roget's voice. He has Roget speak on his wife's death, from cancer. Roget also appears in Shelagh Stephenson 's An Experiment with an Air Pump , set in 1799, as
180-501: A taxonomy. Benjamin Lafaye's Synonymes français (1841) is organized around morphologically related families of synonyms ( e.g. logis, logement ), and his Dictionnaire des synonymes de la langue française (1858) is mostly alphabetical, but also includes a section on morphologically related synonyms, which is organized by prefix, suffix, or construction. Before Roget, most thesauri and dictionary synonym notes included discussions of
216-417: Is often criticised by usage manuals: "Writers sometimes use them not just to vary their vocabularies but to dress them up too much". The word "thesaurus" comes from Latin thēsaurus , which in turn comes from Greek θησαυρός ( thēsauros ) 'treasure, treasury, storehouse'. The word thēsauros is of uncertain etymology. Until the 19th century, a thesaurus was any dictionary or encyclopedia , as in
252-703: Is the largest thesaurus in the world. It is called a historical thesaurus as it arranges the whole vocabulary of English, from the earliest written records in Old English to the present, according to the first documented occurrence of a word in the entire history of the English language. The HTE was conceived and begun in 1965 by the English Language & Linguistics department of the University of Glasgow , who have ever since continued to compile
288-768: The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae ( Dictionary of the Latin Language , 1532), and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae ( Dictionary of the Greek Language , 1572). It was Roget who introduced the meaning "collection of words arranged according to sense", in 1852. In antiquity, Philo of Byblos authored the first text that could now be called a thesaurus. In Sanskrit , the Amarakosha is a thesaurus in verse form, written in
324-541: The HTE arranges the whole vocabulary of English , from the earliest written records in Old English to the present, alongside dates of use. It is the first historical thesaurus to be compiled for any of the world's languages and contains 800,000 meanings for 600,000 words, within 230,000 categories. As the HTE website states, "in addition to providing hitherto unavailable information for linguistic and textual scholars,
360-633: The Historical Thesaurus online is a rich resource for students of social and cultural history, showing how concepts developed through the words that refer to them." The work is divided into three main sections: the External World, the Mind, and Society. These are broken down into successively narrower domains. The text eventually discriminates more than 236,000 categories. The second order categories are: The ambitious project
396-669: The Pneumatic Institute . Not making a quick start to a medical career, in 1802 Roget took a position as a tutor to the sons of John Leigh Philips , with whom he began a Grand Tour during the Peace of Amiens , travelling with a friend, Lovell Edgeworth, son of Richard Lovell Edgeworth . When the Peace abruptly ended he was detained as a prisoner in Geneva. He was able to bring his pupils back to England in late 1803, but Edgeworth
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#1732765825507432-728: The Russell Institution and Royal Institution , he was taken onto the staff of the Queen Charlotte Hospital in 1817. He also lectured at the London Institution and the Windmill Street School . In 1823 Roget and Peter Mere Latham were brought in to investigate disease at Millbank Penitentiary . In 1828 Roget, with William Thomas Brande and Thomas Telford , submitted a report on London's water supply. In 1834 he became
468-509: The Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS). Thesauri are used in natural language processing for word-sense disambiguation and text simplification for machine translation systems. Peter Mark Roget Peter Mark Roget LRCP FRS FRCP FGS FRAS ( UK : / ˈ r ɒ ʒ eɪ / US : / r oʊ ˈ ʒ eɪ / ; 18 January 1779 – 12 September 1869)
504-496: The thesaurus arose partly from an effort to battle it. A biographer stated that his obsession with list-making as a coping mechanism was well established by the time Roget was eight years old. In 1805, he began to maintain a notebook classification scheme for words, organized by meaning. During this period he also moved to Manchester, where he became the first secretary of the Portico Library . The catalogue of words
540-437: The 4th century. The study of synonyms became an important theme in 18th-century philosophy, and Condillac wrote, but never published, a dictionary of synonyms. Some early synonym dictionaries include: Roget's Thesaurus , first compiled in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget, and published in 1852, follows John Wilkins ' semantic arrangement of 1668. Unlike earlier synonym dictionaries, it does not include definitions or aim to help
576-585: The appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures. The paper was noted by Michael Faraday and by Joseph Plateau, who both mentioned it in their articles that presented new illusions with apparent motion. It has often been heralded as the basis for the persistence of vision theory, which has for a long time been falsely regarded as the principle causing the perception of motion in animation and film. In 1834, Roget claimed to have invented "the Phantasmascope or Phenakisticope " in
612-488: The category ( hyponyms ), e.g. breeds of dogs. Bilingual synonym dictionaries are designed for language learners. One such dictionary gives various French words listed alphabetically, with an English translation and an example of use. Another one is organized taxonomically with examples, translations, and some usage notes. In library and information science , a thesaurus is a kind of controlled vocabulary . A thesaurus can form part of an ontology and be represented in
648-544: The differences among near-synonyms, as do some modern ones. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms is a stand-alone modern English synonym dictionary that does discuss differences. In addition, many general English dictionaries include synonym notes. Several modern synonym dictionaries in French are primarily devoted to discussing the precise demarcations among synonyms. Some include short definitions. Some give illustrative phrases. Some include lists of objects within
684-457: The distinctions between similar words, with notes on their "connotations and varying shades of meaning". Some synonym dictionaries are primarily concerned with differentiating synonyms by meaning and usage. Usage manuals such as Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage or Garner's Modern English Usage often prescribe appropriate usage of synonyms. Writers sometimes use thesauri to avoid repetition of words – elegant variation – which
720-501: The family moved to Edinburgh in 1783 where Roget later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh , graduating in 1798. Samuel Romilly, who took on the role of surrogate father to Roget and supported his nephew's education, also introduced him into Whig social circles. Roget then attended lectures at London medical schools. Living in Clifton, Bristol , from 1798 to 1799, he knew Thomas Beddoes and Humphry Davy and frequented
756-534: The fifth Bridgewater Treatise , Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology (1834), and articles for the Encyclopædia Britannica . He was hostile to phrenology , writing against it in a Britannica supplement in 1818, and devoting a two-volume work to it (1838). A chess player, in an article in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine Roget solved
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#1732765825507792-492: The first Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution . One of those who helped found the University of London in 1837, he was an examiner in physiology there. He gave up medical practice in 1840. Roget retired from professional life in 1840, and by 1846 was working on the book that perpetuates his memory today. It has been claimed that Roget struggled with depression for most of his life, and that
828-419: The general open knight's tour problem. He composed chess problems, and designed an inexpensive pocket chessboard. In 1818 Roget was called by the family to the home of Samuel Romilly following the death of his wife, Lady Romilly. Roget's uncle and surrogate father committed suicide by cutting his throat, dying in Roget's presence. In 1824 Roget married Mary Taylor, the daughter of Jonathan Hobson. They had
864-638: The list of synonyms under each word. Some designate a principal entry for each concept and cross-reference it. A third system interfiles words and conceptual headings. Francis March 's Thesaurus Dictionary gives for liability : CONTINGENCY, CREDIT–DEBT, DUTY–DERELICTION, LIBERTY–SUBJECTION, MONEY , each of which is a conceptual heading. The CREDIT—DEBT article has multiple subheadings, including Nouns of Agent, Verbs, Verbal Expressions, etc. Under each are listed synonyms with brief definitions, e.g. " Credit. Transference of property on promise of future payment." The conceptual headings are not organized into
900-559: The only historical character. The play is set in the fictional household of Joseph Fenwick, and Roget is one of Fenwick's assistants. A picture-book biography of Roget entitled The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus was published by Eerdmans Books in 2014. It was named a Caldecott Honor book for excellence in illustration and won the Sibert Medal for excellence in children's nonfiction. Historical Thesaurus of English The Historical Thesaurus of English ( HTE )
936-472: The same organization, though often with more detail under each Head. Others have made modest changes such as eliminating the four-level taxonomy and adding new heads: one has 1075 Heads in fifteen Classes. Some non-English thesauri have also adopted this model. In addition to its taxonomic organization, the Historical Thesaurus of English (2009) includes the date when each word came to have
972-742: The spring of 1831, a few years before Plateau introduced that first stroboscopic animation device. One of the promoters of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London , of which he was the President in 1829, and which later became the Royal Society of Medicine , Roget was also a founder of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , writing a series of popular manuals for it. He wrote numerous papers on physiology and health, among them
1008-715: The thesaurus. From the 1980s onwards the project was moved from paper-based records to a computer database . Today, the HTE is available to the public online, but a print version, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary ( HTOED ), was published in 2009. The Historical Thesaurus of English ( HTE ) is a complete database of all the words in the Oxford English Dictionary and other dictionaries (including Old English ), arranged by semantic field and date. In this way,
1044-496: The user choose among synonyms. It has been continuously in print since 1852 and remains widely used across the English-speaking world. Roget described his thesaurus in the foreword to the first edition: It is now nearly fifty years since I first projected a system of verbal classification similar to that on which the present work is founded. Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my deficiencies, I had, in
1080-633: The year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus now published. Roget's original thesaurus was organized into 1000 conceptual Heads (e.g., 806 Debt) organized into a four-level taxonomy . For example, debt is classed under V. ii .iv: Each head includes direct synonyms: Debt, obligation, liability, ...; related concepts: interest, usance, usury; related persons: debtor, debitor, ... defaulter (808); verbs: to be in debt, to owe, ... see Borrow (788); phrases: to run up
1116-499: Was a British physician , natural theologian , lexicographer , and founding secretary of The Portico Library . He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases , a classified collection of related words ( thesaurus ). In 1824, he read a paper to the Royal Society about a peculiar optical illusion which is often (falsely) regarded as the origin of the ancient persistence of vision theory that
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1152-687: Was announced at a 1965 meeting of the Philological Society by its originator, Michael Samuels . Work on the HTE started in the same year. In 2017, the University of Glasgow was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education for the HTE . A second edition of the online HTE is currently in progress and is expected to be launched in late 2020. Work is released on the freely-available HTE website when available. On 22 October 2009, after 44 years of work, version 1.0 of
1188-556: Was first printed in 1852, titled Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition . During Roget's lifetime, the work had twenty-eight printings. After his death, it was revised and expanded by his son, John Lewis Roget (1828–1908), and later by John's son, the engineer Samuel Romilly Roget (1875–1953). Roget's private library
1224-530: Was held in captivity until Napoleon fell on 6 April 1814. With the help of Samuel Romilly, Roget became a private physician to William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne , who died in 1805. He then succeeded Thomas Percival at Manchester Infirmary and began to lecture on physiology . He moved to London in 1808 and in 1809 became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians . After an extended period of dispensary work and lecturing, in particular, at
1260-489: Was later commonly, yet incorrectly, used to explain apparent motion in film and animation. Peter Mark Roget was born in Broad Street , Soho , London, the son of Jean (John) Roget (1751–1783), a Genevan cleric born to French parents, and Catherine "Kitty" Romilly, the sister of British politician, abolitionist, and legal reformer Sir Samuel Romilly . His parents were French Huguenots . Following his father's death,
1296-647: Was put up for auction in 1870 at Sotheby's and its catalogue has been analyzed. Roget was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815, in recognition of a paper on a slide rule with a loglog scale. He was a secretary of the Society from 1827 to 1848. On 9 December 1824, Roget presented a paper on a peculiar optical illusion to the Philosophical Transactions , which was published in 1825, as Explanation of an optical deception in
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