If you just asked yourself, “What the heck is that? Some kind of dinosaur?” … I like you. I really, really like you.
The Thesaurus Rex – something that should have died out along with the rest of the dinosaurs. Say ‘thesaurus’ three times fast. You can’t? Me either. That’s just one of the reasons I don’t use one and don’t think you should either. There’s one exception – one good use for the thesaurus. But first, you need to know why you shouldn’t use one.
- ‘Thesaurus’ is really hard to say. You don’t want to get tongue tied and embarrassed asking your colleague to hand you that thesaurus. Pleathe and thank you. If you’re reading this out loud to someone next to you, I know that right now … you understand completely.
- Using the most simple, common, familiar word is always your best bet. There’s nothing more annoying than having to stop in the middle of reading to look up a word in the dictionary. Not only do you suddenly feel inferior to the author, but you also lost your train of thought, and probably your interest in whatever you were reading.
- There is absolutely nothing wrong with using the same word more than once, especially if you’re just trying to get your message across. Ex. We built our new home in 2014; it was constructed with both beauty and comfort in mind. You can use both ‘built’ and ‘constructed’, but I promise, you really don’t have to.
When is it a good time to use a thesaurus? I go to it when I just can’t seem to come up with the right word. The word I’m using is ok, but not quite on target. In that case, I visit www.thesaurus.com type in the word I was originally using, and search for the ideal word.
And by the way, I still choose a word that’s both common and familiar.