The Little Oxford Thesaurus

By: Alan Spooner

This revised edition of Oxford's popular Little Thesaurus, which now includes a Reverse Dictionary Supplement, provides even more help with choosing words for writing, speaking, or word games. 150,000... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B015LDIV6A
• ISBN13: 9780198692218
• Release Date: January 1
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.

Customer Reviews

terrific and inexpensive reference

It's hard to believe there are over 150,000 words in this small, lightweight reference guide, and I did not count them personally, but I am trusting the jacket, which boasts "Over 150,000 alternative and opposite words"; it is printed just above "Robust, portable, and easy to use", and I can attest to the truth of the latter claim, though I was not sure what the Press meant by "robust". When I looked it up in the thesaurus, Definition 2 (It did not seem to be the "athletic, brawny" of Definition 1.) lists as synonyms "durable, serviceable, strongly-made, well-made" and an opposite of "weak". So I would say the book is robust. Though I didn't find "robust" under "durable" or "serviceable", it can be found under "strong" but not "well", neither "strongly-made" nor "well-made", being combinatorial forms, appearing. Word entries are arranged simply -- alphabetically -- and entries list each word's part of speech, synonyms, related words, at least one antonym and sometimes illustrative phrases and referrals. Synonyms are listed alphabetically rather than commonest first. The 55-page Reverse Dictionary Supplement will be helpful to those who regularly trawl for words, containing as it does alternative terms, combinatorial forms, common phrase forms, etc. Using abbreviations, markers and examples, a wealth of information is contained in each pithy entry. There are no tables or charts. There is a worthy and brief introduction by compiler Alan Spooner, but nowhere could I discover how many entries are in this edition. The book itself is a pleasing size to fit in one's hand, open or shut, and it is lightweight. A quite useful resource for those who work or play with words.Highly recommended.