Thesaurus

//θɪˈsɔːɹəs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A publication that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms and other semantic relations) for the words of a given language.

    ""Roget" is the leading brand name for a print English thesaurus that lists words under general concepts rather than just close synonyms."

  2. 2
    a book containing a classified list of synonyms wordnet
  3. 3
    A dictionary or encyclopedia. archaic
  4. 4
    A hierarchy of subject headings: canonical titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

Example

More examples

"What's another word for 'thesaurus'?"

Etymology

16th century, borrowed from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. Doublet of treasure.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.