How often do you use the thesaurus?

[ThisAdamGuy]

I've been doing a crap ton of writing lately, and I love it. It's been years since my creative juices have flowed this freely. But one thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to go fifteen minutes without tabbing out of Google docs and heading to WordHippo (way better than thesaurus[dot]com, trust me) to find another word that means the same thing as the one I just realized I've used five times in the same paragraph.

What about you? How often do you turn to the thesaurus? If you don't use it much, is it because you're just naturally good at coming up with synonyms? Or do you just ignore it and use the same word over and over?

 

[CarburetorThompson]

obviously I’ve never used one, since dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I've been doing a crap ton of writing lately, and I love it. It's been years since my creative juices have flowed this freely. But one thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to go fifteen minutes without tabbing out of Google docs and heading to WordHippo (way better than thesaurus[dot]com, trust me) to find another word that means the same thing as the one I just realized I've used five times in the same paragraph.

What about you? How often do you turn to the thesaurus? If you don't use it much, is it because you're just naturally good at coming up with synonyms? Or do you just ignore it and use the same word over and over?

When I was starting to get serious with writing, I often use thesaurus. Nowadays, I've learned a lot of synonymous words (through the same use of it) that I can confidently write whole chapters without consulting it much.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Probably far less often than I should.

 

[Zagaroth]

Not very often. I'm most likely to hit up Merriam-Webster when I want to make sure I am using a word correctly. I'll just have a moment of "Wait, I'm pretty certain that in this situation, this word means [X], but I should check before I make a mistake."

Then sometimes I use something 'weird' without realizing it. I confused a reader on RR with the phrase "...it seemed meet that...". Well, it turns out that was archaic usage. Which, well, yes, it's not something I would use conversationally, but it just seems normal to me to use in a fantasy world, especially for a well educated character. I didn't realize fantasy readers might not be familiar with the phrase.

meet 3 of 3 adjective

archaic & dialectal British
: precisely adapted to a particular situation, need, or circumstance : very proper
… their ghosts … haunt the fires by which sit armed men, as is meet for the spirits of fearless warriors who died in battle.—
Joseph Conrad

 

[butierHHF]

Often. Electronic thesaurus, though.

 

[MiladyAlice]

All the time ? mainly so I'm not repeating the same words and to find a more suitable word, something that fits better. Or sometimes because I know what I want to write but can't remember the word I want ?? (think that's just age though ?)

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Almost every time I write and edit, I use a thesaurus. Though the longer I've written, the more words I have memorized from the thesaurus and a better vocabulary from using the dictionary too.

 

[hidayo]

My dictionary has a built-in thesaurus. So, often.

 

[MasterY001]

You wish to know how often I use a thesaurus when I write? Well, let me tell you.

Every.

Freaking.

Sentence.

But thanks for the WordHippo recommendation. After years of using, thesaurus(.)com, I've been looking for a better thesaurus.

 

[SwordSong]

obviously I’ve never used one, since dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago.

This comment reminds me me of this limerick I recently came across:

I've searched my 'puter from Adasaurus
All the way through to Zapalasaurus
But bless my dear old soul
The more I search and scroll
I've yet to find one named a Thesaurus

Almost wished I wrote this hilarious piece myself.
Anyway, I do use thesaurus a lot since I mostly write poetry.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

obviously I’ve never used one, since dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago.

Fallacy

 

[Deleted member 84247]

This comment reminds me me of this limerick I recently came across:



Almost wished I wrote this hilarious piece myself.
Anyway, I do use thesaurus a lot since I mostly write poetry.

Yay! Another poetry enjoyer.

I use a thesaurus often enough.

 

[Kara_dija]

I've been doing a crap ton of writing lately, and I love it. It's been years since my creative juices have flowed this freely. But one thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to go fifteen minutes without tabbing out of Google docs and heading to WordHippo (way better than thesaurus[dot]com, trust me) to find another word that means the same thing as the one I just realized I've used five times in the same paragraph.

What about you? How often do you turn to the thesaurus? If you don't use it much, is it because you're just naturally good at coming up with synonyms? Or do you just ignore it and use the same word over and over?

İ used to head to thesaurus when I would write poems. For novel, I use one word thesaurus. İt's a gem for people whose first language isn't English. You explain smth to it and it puts forth some words that describe said phenomena best. :D

 

[MindFudge]

My current relationship status with google:

"Hi synonym"
"i synonym"
"Hate synonym"
"You synonym"

 

[tiaf]

You wish to know how often I use a thesaurus when I write? Well, let me tell you.

Every.

Freaking.

Sentence.

But thanks for the WordHippo recommendation. After years of using, thesaurus(.)com, I've been looking for a better thesaurus.

Same.

 

[RainingFish]

I've been doing a crap ton of writing lately, and I love it. It's been years since my creative juices have flowed this freely. But one thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to go fifteen minutes without tabbing out of Google docs and heading to WordHippo (way better than thesaurus[dot]com, trust me) to find another word that means the same thing as the one I just realized I've used five times in the same paragraph.

What about you? How often do you turn to the thesaurus? If you don't use it much, is it because you're just naturally good at coming up with synonyms? Or do you just ignore it and use the same word over and over?

Invariably, inevitably and Indubility.

 

[Bartun]

 

[Elmir_Arch-Ham_of_Omega]

I seldom/infrequently/rarely/occassionally use/employ/apply it.

 

[Pulpitt]

Lately, I've been using AI as a thesaurus since it tends to provide broader results, including collocations, semantic prosodies and more. I'm not sure why, but I feel guilty about it. Am I overreacting?