Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus [Hardcover]

Merriam-Webster (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0877791694 | ISBN-13: 978-0877791690 | Publication Date: January 1988 | Edition: Ind Rei

Find the right word to enrich communication. Alphabetical lists include more than 340,000 synonyms, antonyms, related and contrasted words, and idioms. Brief definitions describe the meaning shared by synonyms. Thumb-notched, and jacketed. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Bundlie started his first company at age nine, typing manuscripts for fiction authors. While in high school he started his second company, MiraView Design, with clients such as Harvard Medical, the Mayo Clinic, Pizza Hut, and numerous celebrities. After moving to L.A., Mike's client list included the Los Angeles Times, Universal Studios, PBS, and many leading actors and directors. There, he and Kevin O'Donnell began collaborating on educational entertainment properties for kids.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 894 pages
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster; Ind Rei edition (January 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877791694
• ISBN-13: 978-0877791690
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 3.6 x 3.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Thesauruses

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best single tool to improve your writing, July 7, 2001

By 

Brian (NYC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus (Hardcover)

Most other dictionary-format thesauri (Roget's II, for instance) simply won't give you what you want on the first try. If, for instance, you want a more decorous word for "smelly", you're brusquely told to "see MALODOROUS". This means that most of the words you are likely to be looking up require a time-wasting two step process: first find the word you want to replace, then find the main entry for that concept. By the time you've finished flipping back and forth through the pages you've forgotten what it is your looking for.

The Webster's version is a thousand times more convenient. If you look up a specific word, you're guaranteed to find about a dozen or so of the most common synonyms right there (funky, stinky, rank, etc.). This first entry is probably all you'll need, and it constitutes the main time-saving benefit of this edition. But there's more. The real verbomaniacs among us get referred to the main entry of the concept. Here you'll find the mother lode of words, often numbering into the dozens and ranging from the most commonplace to the ridiculously obscure (e.g. mephitic, olid, stenchful). You'll also find related terms (vile, rotten, pestilential), contrasting terms (fresh, clean, deoderized), and antonyms (fragrent, sweet) all in the same place, just as you would in Roget's conceptually arranged International edition. Like I said, most writers are sure to find what they need on the first try.

The only other thesaurus that approaches this one is the Random House Collegiate, but I don't think that one has definitions; this one does. I'm also pretty sure this one has more words than Random House, Roget's 21st Century, or any other. It's also inexpensive for a hardcover, so how can you lose?

72 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Merriam-Webster disappoints for once, March 28, 2002

By 

Jmark2001 (Florida) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus (Hardcover)

This will do if you only use a thesaurus occasionally but it won't do for the rest of us. The usually superlative Merriam-Webster product line missed the beat with this one. Although Roget's is a bit more time consuming to use, it is infinitely more rewarding than this volume. I was very disappointed at the small number of synonyms found for each entry in Merriam. In Roget, you can easily find many words that differ by only the slightest and most subtle shade of meaning. In this book, if it isn't an exact match, you won't know about it. I also saw no point to including antonyms in a thesaurus. I would have preferred many more synonyms included in the space used for antonyms.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, September 13, 2005

By 

Dolson "thatzme" (Bishop, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus (Hardcover)

Having used and liked my friend's Roget's 4th Edition Thesaurus, I wanted one of my own. But apparently, Roget's changed the format after the 4th Edition. Rather than get the latest Roget's (6th Edition?), which several buyers didn't like, I went for the Merriam-Webster. For one, it boasted over 60,000 more entries than Roget's. And, it was supposidely easier to use. Well, I've barely used it and I'm really disappointed. Several words I consider fairly common weren't even there! For example, look up "anomaly" in Roget's and you get 5 catagories, each with numerous word-choices. In Merriam-Webster "anomaly" isn't even there!! Neither is "vested". I'm sure there are dozens more. I wish I could return it, but it is 2-weeks past the 30-day limit.