# Is There A Thesaurus Sorted By Degree?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 21, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531 "2008-02-21T07:26:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Strain\_of\_Thought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strain_of_Thought)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531/1 "2008-02-21T07:26:52Z")
Has anyone ever heard of a thesaurus that sorts words not just by meaning but by degree?
Such as, if I were to look up ‘Angry’ I would get words that meant extremely angry (enraged), angry (furious), moderately angry (mad), and slightly angry (miffed)?
I ran into this problem looking for a word which meant something like ‘a very tiny amount of alarm’; often the phrase ‘red flag’ is used to describe the thing that causes the tiny amount of alarm, but I can’t find a word for the tiny amount of alarm itself, and really I want an even tinier amount of alarm than what is associated with ‘red flag’. (more like “That’s funny…”)
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### Author:  [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531/2 "2008-02-21T07:29:35Z")
don’t know about the thesaurus part of your question, but as to the word - would “inkling” work?
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531/3 "2008-02-21T08:01:21Z")
Concern, “thing that caught his/her/my attention”, key, nub, etc.
No idea on the specific question though. Haven’t heard of such–but for most cases, what is and isn’t related and at what level really depends on what you mean the word to mean in a particular context, I would suspect. So I’m not sure it’s possible.
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-thesaurus-sorted-by-degree/438531/4 "2008-02-21T12:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=Strain of Thought]
Has anyone ever heard of a thesaurus that sorts words not just by meaning but by degree?
[/QUOTE]
I believe you are looking for a Roget’s Thesaurus. It is grouped by degree, but it may be a slight twist to what you’re picturing. Check one out.