Finding the Right Word

Generally when writing you’ll need a good set of reference books, including a good dictionary and a complete thesaurus. The problem often is that there are so many out there to choose from, it’s difficult to pick just one. We’ve got a few that we like that we’d like to share with you.

Dictionary

The biggest caveat is make certain you pick one that matches your language and style. If you prefer British English (BE) over American English (AE), then stick with dictionaries published in Great Britain. If one makes you sound all stuffy and proper, but you prefer to write more casual and friendly, pick another.

Online dictionaries abound including American Heritage, Collins Unabridged, Dictionary.com (based on Random House Webster), Merriam-Webster, and of course, the OED (check with your local library to get free access) or Lexico (free, but powered by Oxford).

We prefer using Wiktionary, for completeness and keeping current with usage. On that point, we are aware that some words come and go in popularity, so we tend to consult the Ngram viewer in Google Books for timeliness of word use. (Very handy if you’re wanting to keep in tradition with a historical era.)

Thesaurus

Many dictionaries have a thesaurus as well, each with different tools that can guide you to the concept you need. Some are advert based, such as Thesaurus.com (tied to Dictionary.com), so just keep scrolling to find other word meanings.

Besides those, there are some rather unique methods of finding the right word.

• Power Thesaurus lets you limit your search to specific parts of speech, so it might get you closer to the word you need. Be warned: it claims to be crowdsourced, so some of the connections are a bit vague.
• Twin Word Writer has an interesting feature if you don’t mind typing your copy into a website. As long as you keep typing, it stays quiet in the background, but if you slow down or pause, it will make suggestions on the last word you’ve written. Pasting in a section of text will also allow you to dissect it for a variety of options such as the tone of your writing, a word-by-word count, or a list of tags that seem to apply. To get recommendations, just click on any word, then mouse over the list to see it in your sentence. There is no need to log in if you stick to the web based version, but don’t paste in too much at one time, just a few paragraphs should be enough. (Be advised: It doesn’t seem to understand apostrophes.)

Visual

• Visuwords allows you to see the relationships between words. In the example given, I searched for the word ‘guts’ and got nouns (in blue) and adjectives (sorta yellow-orange). There didn’t happen to be any adverbs (would be shown in pink-red) or verbs (green). The line of red triangles shows that ‘guts’ is a colloquialism, and the stretched out, red diamonds connecting to ‘gutless’ shows it is an opposite. The long, skinny, teal triangle shows that ‘guts’ is a kind of ‘fortitude’…and ‘fortitude’ is a kind of ‘bravery’. The dotted grey line shows that ‘gutsy’ is derived from ‘guts’. Lots of info just on that one screen…but if you point to any dot, you’ll get a definition, and double-clicking will bring up the links to that Grabbing any dot and dragging will let you move dots on the edge back to the middle, so you can see them better.
• Visual Thesaurus is another option that shows how words are related, and besides showing the parts of speech, you can actually limit (or focus on) the parts of speech you want. You only get a limited number of searches unless you sign up for the paid service, but if you plan to use this thesaurus often, it isn’t a bad deal: $20/yr…just don’t spend too much time playing around with it…get back to your writing!

Topic Sort

If you prefer printed reference books, make certain to get a topic-sorted thesaurus…not dictionary sort. The dictionary sort may be a bit quicker and easier when looking up one or two words because it is sorted alphabetically, but if you’re having problems find the right idea, a topic sort is much better. A dictionary sort puts ‘black’ and ‘blue’ fairly near each other, but ‘green’, ‘red’, and ‘yellow’ much farther away. In a topic sort, all the colours will be adjacent, often with opposites right next to each other.

For example, you can find Whiteness in section 430, immediately followed by Blackness in 431. That entry references section 421 just a couple pages back, Darkness, which proceeds Dimness, 422. So, if you don’t know exactly what colour the night sky is on a distant planet, you might find some good ideas here: Blackness gives ‘black as thunder’, Darkness has ‘the palpable obscure’, and Dimness offers ‘cloudy, misty, hazy, foggy, muggy, fuliginous, nebulous, lowering, overcast, crepuscular, muddy, lurid, and looming’. Take your pick!