# Thesaurus (MS Word): Where Can I Get A First-Rate Thesaurus?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 23, 2001, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287 "2001-05-23T13:44:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2001, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/1 "2001-05-23T13:44:08Z")
MS Word’s thesaurus is pathetic, weak, pitiful, deplorable, feeble, etc. By contrast, “Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus” (in book form) is terrific.
Where can I get a comparable PC-based thesaurus?
Anyone share my frustration?
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### Author:  [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/2 "2001-05-23T14:53:47Z")
This works pretty good for me…
> **[Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/)**
>
> The dictionary by Merriam-Webster is America's most trusted online dictionary for English word definitions, meanings, and pronunciation. #wordsmatter
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2001, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/3 "2001-05-23T23:31:45Z")
(sigh) Thanks.
Let me be a bit more specific.
I _already_ have a world-class print thesaurus.Does anyone sell a world-class PC-based thesaurus that can be integrated with MSWord 2000?
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### Author:  [@Sparteye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparteye)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/4 "2001-05-24T03:30:00Z")
To clarify, the link BF gave provides an online thesaurus service; just plug in the word you want and hit enter.
Similar services are also available from:
[http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms\_unrest/ROGET.html](http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html)
[http://vancouver-webpages.com/wordnet/index.html](http://vancouver-webpages.com/wordnet/index.html)
Or, you can get the service by Email by sending an Email to [wsmith@wordsmith.org](mailto:wsmith@wordsmith.org), and in the subject line putting “synonym” followed by a space and the word you want the synonyms for.
Or, you can download a program from Atomica which serves as a combination dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, almanac, history book, search engine, translator, weather ticker, atlas, medical and science dictionary, and wondrous other reference materials. Install the program, and then when you alt+click on any word in any document in your computer, and you are online, it will pop up and give you info on the word. You can find the program at [http://www.atomica.com](http://www.atomica.com)
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/5 "2001-05-24T04:03:14Z")
Well, I doubt that it can be integrated with Word, but the actual Roget’s _Thesaurus_ (as opposed to the Merriam-Webster mis-named work–since it is really a Dictionary of Synonyms) can be found at [http://www.thesaurus.com/](http://www.thesaurus.com/) .
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesaurus-ms-word-where-can-i-get-a-first-rate-thesaurus/66287/6 "2001-05-24T04:20:17Z")
I got my Websters’s New World Dictionary and Thesarus CD at Staples.
Here is an article in May’s Atlantic dissing Roget’s effort.
[http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/2001/05/winchester-p1.htm](http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/2001/05/winchester-p1.htm)
"Word Imperfect
Roget’s Thesaurus has long been considered one of the great lexicographical achievements in the history of the English language, a reference work of astonishing ubiquity and far-reaching influence. But now the author of The Professor and the Madman—the best-selling tale of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—questions the legacy of the definitive list of synonyms that the brilliant Peter Mark Roget compiled 150 years ago. Is the name Roget becoming a synonym for intellectually second-rate?
by Simon Winchester"
etc