What is a thesaurus? | English for Year 3 PDF Download

What is a thesaurus?

• Sometimes you might want to express something differently. A thesaurus can assist with this.
• When you search for a word in a thesaurus, it provides a list of synonyms. These are words that have the same or similar meanings.
• One of these synonyms might be a better choice for your message, and you can use it instead.

How to use a thesaurus

• A thesaurus is arranged in alphabetical order, just like a dictionary, so you look up words in the same manner.
• For instance, if you wanted to find a synonym for ‘nice’ in a thesaurus:
• You begin by finding words starting with ‘n’, then ‘n-i’, then ‘n-i-c’ until you finally get to ‘n-i-c-e’.
• You'll then find many other words that have the same meaning as 'nice' that you can use in your writing, such as 'lovely' or 'pleasant'.
• Instead of saying 'The man has a nice smile', you could use a thesaurus to find more descriptive words.
• For example, 'The man has a pleasant smile' gives a clearer picture to your reader.