Roget's Descriptive Word Finder [Hardcover]

Barbara Ann Kipfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2003

Whether they're working on a full-length novel or short magazine article, writers can make their work fresher and more evocative with Roger's Descriptive Word Finder. It's the essential guide for choosing accurate, specific descriptive words--the key to writing with precision and style. Users can flip through this reference topic-by-topic to find just the right word or phrase. It's ideal for fiction and poetry writers, as well as teachers, journalists, students and copywriters. Anyone who needs to describe something will find help and a perfect solution in this valuable desk reference.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her latest resource for writers, lexicographer Kipfer (Flip Dictionary; Roget's Thesaurus of Phrases) offers scribes a hybrid dictionary-thesaurus of adjectives and adverbs, with thousands of words and phrases divided into 572 thematic categories, from "Abandonment-Discontinuance" to "Zoology." The format may feel strange to those who employ favorite synonym finders already, but the array of word choices in each category will no doubt win Kipfer's system fans. Under the "Aberration-Unconventionality" heading, for example, the 80 entries include suggestions both basic (abnormal, amorphous, singular) and advanced (azygous, errabund, farblondzhet). The links between the headings and their potential descriptors sometimes feel a little shaky: would someone looking to describe a confinement pick hapteric ("fastening; holding fast") or in Lob's Pound ("held playfully between the legs and feet of an adult; said of a child")? When a writer needs a synonym quickly, there's no beating a good standard thesaurus, but this volume offers word-lovers a cornucopia of surprising lexical treats. With antepaschal ("before Passover or Easter), isogogic ("introductory"), predormient ("before sleep") and vanward ("at or to the front") all appearing under "Before-Preceding," and the "Writing" category offering allonymous ("ghostwritten"), cuneiform, Jacobean, out-of-print, prosaic and scribaceous ("fond of writing"), this is a diverting, quirky resource indeed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (May 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582971706
• ISBN-13: 978-1582971704
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Synonyms & Antonyms

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Of limited use to writers, June 14, 2003

By 

TheCafeWriter (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Roget's Descriptive Word Finder (Hardcover)

For people fond of words and language, this is a fun book for browsing, no doubt. But for writers looking to write more descriptively, this book is not the best choice and for some writers, may even be a poor choice.

For one thing, nearly half the words in this book are *very* obscure, polysyllabic words that writers are probably better off avoiding. The words may impress but most readers won't know them.

For another, this book is all adjectives. That in itself is not a bad thing, but many writers also need specific verbs as well. Using this book, one could be inclined to modify a verb with an adjective. No matter how well-chosen the adjective, this leads to wordiness. Why use "walked slowly" if "ambled" is the more specific (and better) choice?

You'll get far more use from books like Rodale's "The Synonym Finder" and Random House's "Word Menu." McCutcheon's "Roget's Super Thesaurus" is less comprehensive but still a decent book to have on your shelf.

This is a good book for those who enjoy unusual words and who enjoy language for its own sake. Writers looking for books that help them improve their writing should look elsewhere.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, but..., January 1, 2005

By 

James C. Trawick - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roget's Descriptive Word Finder (Hardcover)

I agree with the previous reviewers... this is an excellent alternative to a thesaurus. The lists of synonyms each have a definition, so that you can find exactly the right connotation for your taste. I can't count how many times I've looked up an idea in a thesaurus and all of the synonyms I found had exactly the same connotations (red, crimson, scarlet; instead of, say, bloody).

I do have one MAJOR complaint, though - there is no key to this book! There is no Table of Contents or Index appendix.

Sure, the ideas are categorized, but you have to scan through the entire book, page by page, hoping to run across the category you want. It's a HUGE problem unless you've got all of the categories memorized. Sample categories from pages 272-273: Observance, Obstruction, Occupation, Occurance, Ocean. I don't know about you, but those terms don't automatically spring to mind when I'm looking for a word.

Then you get to the "Quick Word Finder" appendix - pages 411-457 - and there are an entirely NEW set of alphebetized categories. You may have to check in both places.

I still think it's an awesome book... but please, please, please, I beg you, authors - add a key in the next edition! Please!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over five hundred entries, August 8, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roget's Descriptive Word Finder (Hardcover)

Roget's Descriptive Word Finder blends a dictionary and thesaurus devoted exclusively to adjectives, offering thousands of descriptions for people, places and things and presenting a theme organization which brings related words together. There are over five hundred entries which are designed to appeal both as quick references and as browsing material.