January 18th is National Thesaurus Day! Peter Mark Roget, the author of Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, was born on the 18th in 1779. He was known to enjoy making lists from an early age; His thesaurus was a decades-long project to categorize words and phrases for use in his own writing. Roget’s Thesaurus is widely used to this day and has not been out of print since its publication in 1852.
Today many more types of thesauri exist. But all conform to Roget’s original idea of grouping words and phrases with the same meaning together. This process creates an accessible list that helps writers use more varied and interesting language in their works. See the list below for a selection of thesauri you can check out today.
January 18th is National Thesaurus Day! See the list below to explore the different kinds of thesauri available for checkout.
Sources
-- Laura Stellrecht, Librarian
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