# Can I manually upgrade/enhance/optimize MS Word's plain-Jane thesaurus?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-manually-upgrade-enhance-optimize-ms-words-plain-jane-thesaurus/337479
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 28, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-manually-upgrade-enhance-optimize-ms-words-plain-jane-thesaurus/337479 "2005-12-28T20:05:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-manually-upgrade-enhance-optimize-ms-words-plain-jane-thesaurus/337479/1 "2005-12-28T20:05:32Z")

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MS Word’s thesaurus can be handy when one is in a pinch, but it’s rather limited, inadequate, incomplete and narrow.

Does someone know of a feature, cheat or tweak that would allow users to dump a few thousand additional synonyms (and slang/foreign expressions) into the reference core?

If there is a better **computer-based** thesaurus, I’m all ears.

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### Author: ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-manually-upgrade-enhance-optimize-ms-words-plain-jane-thesaurus/337479/2 "2005-12-28T20:46:42Z")

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You can purchase any number of add-on thesauruses and dictionaries for Word. There are even a few freeware versions floating around.