January 18 is National Thesaurus Day by Elaine A. Powers, Author

What would we do without the Thesaurus?

Before the age of the Internet, we used a thesaurus made of paper that we held in our hands. (For you younger folks, a thesaurus, despite its spelling, is not a kind of dinosaur.)

When writing, we often search for just the right word to convey our message. Or we find ourselves using the same words over and over.  In situations like these, a writer would pull their thesaurus off the bookshelf.  A thesaurus lists words in groups of synonyms and related concepts.  A synonym is a word that means exactly or almost the same as another word, such as writer and author. These books were invaluable or indispensable to writers.

Nowadays, of course, thesauruses or thesauri are still used, but they are on found online. Whether hard copy or digital, the thesaurus is still necessary for composition. The English language is a diverse collection of words and it’s fun to learn them. As an author of over 25 scripts and books, I am grateful for the thesaurus that allows me to fully utilize, employ, or exploit as many interesting, informative, and appropriate words as possible.