Oxford Paperback Thesaurus (Thesaurus **)

If you write a bit, have one of these by your side. In a short time it will become an essential writing tool, able to turn even the most unpromising material into something appreciably better.

I'm not particularly interested in the specifics of the OXFORD PAPERBACK THESAURUS, save to say that Oxford, and possibly Collins, are the best of its type. I'm just glad it fits into my back pocket and does what it says on the tin, so to speak. And that's the bottom line: this is an excellent and user-friendly dictionary of synonyms and as portable as my laptop.

Feeling pretentious, precocious or obnoxious? Hey, a thesaurus can help...provided you understand the rules. If not, you may find yourself unwittingly dropped flat on your arse without mercy, so be careful what you wish for. And how you articulate it.

Try it, though. That's what I'm really saying. If you love the language but need, on occasion, to express yourself with a bit more imagination or clarity, then this is the way to go. Once you get used to using it you'll never look back.


VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The big hardback thesauri are too big, and the mini or Gem thesauri are too small for your needs. Then look no further than The Oxford Paperback Thesauarus (OPT). According to the introductory blurb, it is an abridgement of the New Oxford Thesaurus of English published in 2000. In fact it is 95% of said New Oxford Thesaurus of English. Having downloaded the pdf file with a sample of the larger thesaurus and compared it to this OPT, I was amazed. For a fraction of the price you do indeed get an average of 95% of the content!
The layout is good: headwords are in a bold sans-serif font and the synonyms are in a (for some maybe a little too small) serif font. The different senses of the words are clearly numbered and in general each sense begins with an example sentence. These sentences annoy some, but I find them a welcome addition: they help you get as close as possible to the intended nuance of meaning.
As an example: the word "flat" as adjective (no abbrevitation, it really is an adjective and not and adj.). There are 11 clearly numbered nuances of meaning (white numbers in black circles), each one beginning with an example sentence and the 8th pointing out that the usage for that nuance is British. The verb "take" has 34 (!!) numbered nuances.
This is one book that will travel with me. 968 pages of useful information covering just about all the vocabulary you are going need on a daily basis.
One minor groan: Oxford never uses the best available paper in its paperback books. Chances are the pages will start yellowing after about a year.
Are you a linguistic masochist? Then buy the Chambers Giant Paperback Thesaurus instead. If the Oxford can be compared to a cruise on the QM2, the Chambers can be compared to crossing the Channel in a rowing boat. But Chambers makes use of good quality paper.
Even at the cover price of GBP 6.99, the OPT is worth every penny. If you find otherwise, do not hesitate to take me to task!

The work is a reasonable attempt to produce a useful reference work. It suffers to some extent from the author's attempt to put more into a thesaurus than is strictly necessary. When I use one it is because I wish to find a word-equivalent which may be synonymous or simply be loosely related. I do not want a list of examples of how to use the word, or someone elses's view of how the various words should be grouped or categorised, nor do I want a dictionary. I don't want someone else's opinion about the frequency with which the words are used - I simply want a LIST OF WORDS! Get it????? Having said all that, the Oxford Paperback Thesaurus is about the best of a very poor bunch at the present time. The best of all was the Chambers Thesaurus ISBN 1-85296-017-5. My paperback copy is falling to bits and it is plain that I will have to try to get it repaired. On a scale of 0 - 10 I would give this 10. If you can find a copy grab it and treasure it. I would award the Oxford Paperback maybe 6/10 and most of the others a mere 3 or 4 out of ten.