Customer Reviews

Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus

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I've used a lot of thesauruses over the years, including Roget's International Thesaurus intensively through several editions, and the new Bartlett's eclipses them all. The latest Roget's International Thesaurus is in some respects inferior to previous editions, as I was no longer finding the exact word I was looking for. I have an extremely high success rate with this new Bartlett version. It's fun just to browse around in it. Many quotations

After several days of research, during which I sought recommendations in books for writers and tested a dozen competitors, I have found Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus the clear winner. Compared to its rivals, it is cheaper, but printed on better paper with a more legible typeface. It has a useful thumb index and a clean layout unlike the others. Its wordlists, topics, and lists are more relevant.

Best of all, it's more intuitive than the others--not only in the process of looking up a word, but in the list of words found. And at the end of most wordlists are references to related concepts that increase the smart, intuitive feel to the book, a feature lacking in the competition. I consistently found the right word and/or wordlist more easily with Roget's Bartlett's than with Roget's International 6th.

The crucial step to finding the right word is when looking in the index. Fortunately, Bartlett's lists every single word in the index, whereas Roget's International 6th does not. Not finding a word in a thesaurus index is disconcerting, and substituting that word for a simpler, indexed one doesn't always lead in the right direction. Also, instead of distinguishing between nouns and verbs in the index, as Roget's International 6th does with hard-to-read type, Bartlett's streamlines the search by using descriptive phrases that distinguish, for example, "pedal" the part of a keyboard instrument from "pedal" meaning propel. This helps to pinpoint the right wordlist.

Despite its unwieldy name, Bartlett's Roget's does not exactly combine both reference tools. There is only about one quotation from Bartlett's every two pages, making the quotations more of a decorative distraction than a useful reference. But I see nothing wrong with the innocuous added bonus in a thesaurus that easily beats the others.

I have, like some of my overzealous opposite numbers, gone overboard by going into a spree of pre test consumerism esp. that of books related to GRE. I have bought nearly 4 different thesauri but Barlett's Roget's thesaurus surpasses them all. For example: Crabbed which basically means irratible, ill tempered, spiteful, cranky, pettish, etc. Now, if you search for the meaning of crabbed in merriam websters dictionary (the best available on the planet) it will spit out the meaning as sour or peevish (irratible). But if you try to search for the synonyms list for the word crabbish, no other thesauri, in which happened i happened to check, except Barletts Rogets, had irritable as a synonym in its synonym list for the headword - crabbing. This is one of the several examples which have enraged me enough to discard my various other thesauri in favor of Barletts Rogets Thesaurus.

Very likely the single most important feature this book offers is exactly what we word-hunters mostly want from a thesaurus:

1) An impressively high hit rate.

2) A large number of highly useful references.

Besides that, I think this book excels its competitors (painstakingly compared trying to buy the very best available one) in many another important ways.

Other thesauruses and even some children's dictionaries' "how to use" sections run for several pages in rather small typeface. The fact that the "How to use" section of this thesaurus takes really sparse areas of the front and back pages of one single leaf can give you an idea of how easy to use it is. The backbone of this ease of use of course is the thoughtful organization.

The book (1415 pages) is divided into two main parts: the Thesaurus itself and the Index. Want to look up a word? Look it up in the neat looking 4-columns-per-page Index (40% of the book) which is guaranteed to contain an entry for every single word and phrase contained in the book. There you get the keyword and number of all the different subparagraphs in the thesaurus where that word appears. These numbered paragraphs group together words of similar meaning. The paragraphs are subdividions within parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs...) within numbered subcategories of the top 24 large groups of related subjects embodied in the thesaurus. At the end of each paragraph you may also find very useful cross references to other related categories.

What if you have a tip-of-the-tongue effect or don't really know the word you want? Then you could navigate through the really easy to follow hierarchy: Subject -> Category -> Part of speech -> Numbered paragraphs

and enlighten yourself finding as many relevant words and cross references as there may possibly exist within the given domain and subcategory you are interested in.

Alphabetical and order-of-appearance indexes are provided for all the subject categories. Quotes are also provided showing how heading words are used, and also special listings that amplify the textual paragraphs.

But still besides this impressive hit rate and the wise and easy organization, being a computer scientist and software developer aware of user interface issues -actually mostly because of being a book worm myself- I think the making of this book also excels its competitors in features frequent users and book lovers greatly appreciate: the quality of the paper (clean white), the clarity and readability of the typeface, the thoughtful and consistent layouts (even minor details like how the ranges of paragraph numbers and keywords stand out over the page numbers at the bottom of each page).

I think this book is surely the best in its class for those several reasons. What is more, I think it's not just a highly valuable reference tool for native English speakers but particularly for anyone studying or using English as a second language (like this reviewer), and in general for anyone trying to improve their vocabulary.

I was sick of all the thesauruses in my office that are set up in dictionary-alphabetic format and turned to Amazon for the traditional concept-based thesaurus of my youth. I got it with "Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus."

The indexing alone is well worth the money you'll pay for this, but if that's not enough, you might like the list of categories, (will and behaivior, spatial relations, negotiations & fiscal relations, etc.) that are included both by concepts and alphabetically. In addition, there are a lot of lists included, from breeds of cattle to stations of the cross to varieties of beans. Makes for some interesting reading.

If *that* hasn't convinced you, the actual thesaurus part of it is darn good. Many times I turn to this reference book to prompt creativity, to expand on ideas, etc. The contemporary terms and phrases and relationships between words and concepts are quite good. If you appreciate good resources, this is going to be a great desk item for you.

There are a lot of quaint reference guides out on the market today, but as a professional writer and teacher this is always the thesaurus I reach for. Not only are you provided with nearly half a million synonyms, but Rogets make the definition conise and meaningful.

You will find this book an essential part of your reference section be it 2 books or 200 books in volume. It makes little difference if you are writing a term paper or a business letter, you are foolish not to have this vital tool.

Upon first seeing (and hefting) this volume, I was impressed by its size and hopeful of its contents. After all, it has 1400+ good sized pages, and weighs... well - a bit! "Wow! What a resource!" I thought. Turns out: only 848 of those pages are the actual thesaurus, the other 567 are an index. To be fair, that Index is a useful addition; as I, for one, haven't mastered the left-brain heavy savoir faire apparently necessary to navigate the typical thesaurus. Likewise, the volume itself is useful. I looked long and hard before buying it, and think it is certainly one of the best on the market. This is by no means your `quick and dirty' Roget's Pocket version. It provides a lengthy treatment of most words I've had occasion to investigate. With Bartlett's, I bought The Synonym Finder as what I intended to be a supplemental companion volume. Using them together, however, I find they very often duplicate the exact same synonym lists. The major difference is that - for me - the latter is easier to use. To be fair, Bartlett's does have some special interest sections, such as a 4 ½ page list of Phobias: listed by name and type; or a list of "Children's Games and Party Games," etc. To be honest, as well as fair: in the year+ that I've used this volume, I've never had occasion to use that feature. To be positive as well as negative: in that same period of time, I've never sought a word and not found it listed in either volume. That's not `less than impressive' as I write for a living and do so on an advanced level, so the words I seek are not common fare. Finally: to be practical, the price tag attached to this item is quite reasonable, in my judgment. My advice is this: Both Bartlett's and The Synonym Finder are excellent volumes. Buy whichever one your brain will find easier to use. But don't buy both.

Indispensable! I gave my old copy of this to my nephew going away to college. What a mistake for me! I was in graduate school at the time and had another thesaurus in dictionary form..and figured that would be fine. Yuck. I found myself wishing I had this version again..so I just bought another one.

The way I use it is not to come up with words to impress people (well, not usually) but rather to remember a word that I want to use, but can't exactly recall (must be my age). I know you all have done it and can relate to that great feeling of finally finding that word! The conceptual setup is perfect for this becuase sometimes you can get close with a guess, but you need that whole section on weight (for example) to really pinpoint your word (not just synonyms for heavy).

For me as a student, translator, and writer, this thesaurus has become one of my best friends. It is organized in a very creative way, with an index in the back referring to the various sections of the book's body, where terms are grouped by topic. In the index, you look up the word for which you need related words, and then you choose between the many terms under that heading, each with a distinct variation in meaning. You can thereby turn to the section that best relates to the meaning you are looking for.

Once you've turned to the section referred to in the index, you not only find an extensive list of synonyms for that term, but you also have, on that same page, words that are related but which fall in different parts of speech. That has been very useful for me. And since the terms are grouped by topic, you can look through neighboring entries and pages of entries, finding all kinds of similar and related words, whereas, in a traditional thesaurus layout, the only thing adjacent to your entry would be those words that start with the same letters.

In short, what makes this thesaurus so wonderful is that you have access to an extensive range of word power, since the words referenced in the entry you're interested in are not limited to the space just below the word itself: they are spread throughout the book in logical groups, and the index quickly directs you to the sense of the word that you are interested in.

Wonderful reference! With more than 350,000 references, I have no problem finding the word I'm looking for. This thesaurus has words both indexed and categorized so that related words are even closer at hand. Makes serendipity more likely. I especially like the lists included throughout the book. If I look up "hero," I also get a list of famous heros in history. Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus can make writing much more interesting and fun.