The go-to guide for finding those exceptional and unexpected words that will bring your writing to the next level.
Do you find that your regular thesaurus spits out the same old words already running through your head? Are the lists boring, repetitive, and generally unhelpful? Peter E. Meltzer thought so and decided to create a unique thesaurus that would offer interesting, original synonyms along with contextual examples. He quotes from a range of recent media—including books and hundreds of magazines and newspapers—to reassure readers that though the words might be unfamiliar, they are all completely legitimate words in current use. The first edition was the top-selling thesaurus in the United States on numerous occasions. The second edition has been expanded by 50 percent and includes a new introduction that lays out the goals and methods of the thesaurus. This highly entertaining and informative book is truly a dream come true, not only for logophiles but for anyone wishing to enhance their writing through these wonderful words.
The Thinker's Thesaurus
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Endlessly readable and wonderfully instructive." —Robert Hartwell Fiske, author, The Dimwit's Dictionary
"A million dollars' worth of fifty-cent words." —Erin McKean, editor, Verbatim
"One of the most distinctive features of the book is its use of proper names as synonyms." —Chicago Tribune
"A special, offbeat supplement to a general compendium of synonyms." —The New York Times
"Meltzer's thesaurus may not be a new wheel, but it's definitely a new way to roll." —The Philadephia Enquirer
"Delves into the mostly untapped reservoir of the English lexicon, offering readers more than top-of-mind word choices." —Dow Jones Newsletter
"If you love words, you will be hooked on this book." —TheCelebrityCafe.com
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Peter E. Meltzer, the author of the best-selling The Thinker’s Thesaurus and So You Think You Know the Presidents?, is an attorney and a former professor at Rutgers University School of Law. He is a long-suffering Phillies fan.
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More About the Author
Peter E. Meltzer is a practicing attorney and adjunct law professor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has always been interested in lexicology, which inspired him to spend ten years writing the two editions of The Thinker's Thesaurus.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
106 of 110 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Whenever I consider a new thesaurus, I look up the entry for "delay" to see whether "cunctation" appears. Needless to say, I am often disappointed. I think it's a thesaurus's role to alert users to such forms, even if the right time for using them rarely arises. Mr. Meltzer's opus not only provides this rare synonym, but also includes a citation of its use.
This book is designed to take off where other thesauri stop, so you won't want to get along without an ordinary thesaurus. This one rewards browsers. The 35-page introduction covers so many bases that it's worth the price of the book all by itself.
I suppose I would quibble with the author's heavy reliance on ephemeral sources (magazines and newspapers) rather than books, but some might regard that as a plus. In any event, consider this book: it may well be just the one you're looking for.
This book is designed to take off where other thesauri stop, so you won't want to get along without an ordinary thesaurus. This one rewards browsers. The 35-page introduction covers so many bases that it's worth the price of the book all by itself.
I suppose I would quibble with the author's heavy reliance on ephemeral sources (magazines and newspapers) rather than books, but some might regard that as a plus. In any event, consider this book: it may well be just the one you're looking for.
193 of 207 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Back in the day, say 1852, Peter Mark Roget, finding no thesaurus on the shelf, decided to write one himself, grouping words by related ideas and earning for himself a place in lexicographical history.
Subsequent thesauruses, rivals to Roget, dispensed with the grouping principle and simply listed words alphabetically. Not all of the synonyms were direct substitutes for the word synonymized. The assumption was (and is) that we readers know the nuances and simply need our mind jogged a bit. If we wanted a synonym for "steal" we might come across embezzle -- but we'd have to know that embezzling is a particular kind of stealing. (You can't embezzle a candy bar from the grocery store, but you can steal one. But you really shouldn't.)
Most of the synonyms in these word books were also likely as common as the original word -- ho-hum! Frankly, if we are looking for a sparkling alternative to quotidian diction, the thesaurus is a dinosaurus.
Of course, we might well turn to the many books that alphabetize unusual or obsolete words, but we can't have archaic and eat it, too, since how would we know that "natterjack" was just the word we wanted for a Western European toad that runs rather than hops?
Enter Philadelphia attorney Peter E. Meltzer who, after a decade of sedulous work on his avocation, has published "The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Alternatives to Common Words" ($16.95 in paperback from Marion Street Press). Attempting to write the wrongs of thesauruses past (which he does in a marvelous 50-page introduction), Meltzer goes on to deliver the goods, thousands of ordinary words coupled with one or more less common synonyms. But he doesn't stop there. Some 75 percent of the entries contain "clarifiers" helping us understand the particular synonym's "spin." So wrongdoing "in public office" is malversation. And an occupation "requiring little work but paying an income" is a sinecure.
Meltzer writes that he has avoided the use of obsolete words (Shakespeare used a lot of them, but they weren't obsolete then, don't you know). To show their currency, the "thinker's synonyms" get illustrative quotations drawn from magazines, newspapers, and even books published in the last decade. The author quotes from a story in the Sydney Morning Herald from 2000 about the newest in adult education courses -- stripping. The quote comes in the entry for "bravado" and its synonym "fanfaronade": "Fanfaronade," says the story, "will take you through the steps necessary to become a confident exotic dancer. Each participant is expected to have partially completed a semester each of Tassel Making, Cracking Walnuts with Your Own Buttocks on Stage and Booking the Light Entertainment Circuit." Just so you know, there's also a good word for "having a nicely proportioned rear end": callipygian. Time magazine used it of Jennifer Lopez.
Some words cry out to be used in this day and age. Under "superficial (knowledge of a subject while pretending to be learned)" we find "sciolism" and a quote from a Montreal newspaper referring to talk show hosts. Oh, Canada: You, too?
What has me eupeptic (cheerful but, you know, in a scholarly way) is that "The Thinker's Thesaurus" is not a book for impressing friends with a lot of fanfaronade. It's a book that helps us think a little more clearly as we search for just the right word -- especially those who yearn to be philosophers and not mere philophasters.
This book may, however, make you a philosopher faster!
Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College. Copyright 2006 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.
Subsequent thesauruses, rivals to Roget, dispensed with the grouping principle and simply listed words alphabetically. Not all of the synonyms were direct substitutes for the word synonymized. The assumption was (and is) that we readers know the nuances and simply need our mind jogged a bit. If we wanted a synonym for "steal" we might come across embezzle -- but we'd have to know that embezzling is a particular kind of stealing. (You can't embezzle a candy bar from the grocery store, but you can steal one. But you really shouldn't.)
Most of the synonyms in these word books were also likely as common as the original word -- ho-hum! Frankly, if we are looking for a sparkling alternative to quotidian diction, the thesaurus is a dinosaurus.
Of course, we might well turn to the many books that alphabetize unusual or obsolete words, but we can't have archaic and eat it, too, since how would we know that "natterjack" was just the word we wanted for a Western European toad that runs rather than hops?
Enter Philadelphia attorney Peter E. Meltzer who, after a decade of sedulous work on his avocation, has published "The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Alternatives to Common Words" ($16.95 in paperback from Marion Street Press). Attempting to write the wrongs of thesauruses past (which he does in a marvelous 50-page introduction), Meltzer goes on to deliver the goods, thousands of ordinary words coupled with one or more less common synonyms. But he doesn't stop there. Some 75 percent of the entries contain "clarifiers" helping us understand the particular synonym's "spin." So wrongdoing "in public office" is malversation. And an occupation "requiring little work but paying an income" is a sinecure.
Meltzer writes that he has avoided the use of obsolete words (Shakespeare used a lot of them, but they weren't obsolete then, don't you know). To show their currency, the "thinker's synonyms" get illustrative quotations drawn from magazines, newspapers, and even books published in the last decade. The author quotes from a story in the Sydney Morning Herald from 2000 about the newest in adult education courses -- stripping. The quote comes in the entry for "bravado" and its synonym "fanfaronade": "Fanfaronade," says the story, "will take you through the steps necessary to become a confident exotic dancer. Each participant is expected to have partially completed a semester each of Tassel Making, Cracking Walnuts with Your Own Buttocks on Stage and Booking the Light Entertainment Circuit." Just so you know, there's also a good word for "having a nicely proportioned rear end": callipygian. Time magazine used it of Jennifer Lopez.
Some words cry out to be used in this day and age. Under "superficial (knowledge of a subject while pretending to be learned)" we find "sciolism" and a quote from a Montreal newspaper referring to talk show hosts. Oh, Canada: You, too?
What has me eupeptic (cheerful but, you know, in a scholarly way) is that "The Thinker's Thesaurus" is not a book for impressing friends with a lot of fanfaronade. It's a book that helps us think a little more clearly as we search for just the right word -- especially those who yearn to be philosophers and not mere philophasters.
This book may, however, make you a philosopher faster!
Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College. Copyright 2006 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By BooBooKatie
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Perhaps my expectations were too high after reading all the glowing reviews but my balloon quickly deflated this evening as I sat down with this book to find intellectual synonyms for common words. I found no results more often than not.
I tried again later with the word "flippant". Nothing.
Then I looked up "messy" and was given "frowzy", "blowsy", and "higgledy-piggledy". Are those the missing dwarfs from "Snow White"?
Later again with the word "useless", which is what I was going to title this review. It gave me one workable synonym, as you can see.
When I think of a thesaurus, I envision a dictionary: nearly all-inclusive with not just one, but several alternative options depending on the use of a word. Something I need while working on a term paper at 3am, when my mind has long-since turned to mush, leaving even the most basic understanding of the English language just beyond my tired grasp.
But I hate to part on bad terms so I won't say it is a useless book but rather just not as...I was looking up a synonym for "helpful" but that's not in this book either!
I tried again later with the word "flippant". Nothing.
Then I looked up "messy" and was given "frowzy", "blowsy", and "higgledy-piggledy". Are those the missing dwarfs from "Snow White"?
Later again with the word "useless", which is what I was going to title this review. It gave me one workable synonym, as you can see.
When I think of a thesaurus, I envision a dictionary: nearly all-inclusive with not just one, but several alternative options depending on the use of a word. Something I need while working on a term paper at 3am, when my mind has long-since turned to mush, leaving even the most basic understanding of the English language just beyond my tired grasp.
But I hate to part on bad terms so I won't say it is a useless book but rather just not as...I was looking up a synonym for "helpful" but that's not in this book either!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your money
There are many other books of this nature that are much more helpful. Many words I looked up were missing.
Published 15 days ago by Sheila M. Gorsky
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved It!
Great for people who love to write and like less common words to choose from. Bought as a gift for a writer she uses it often.
Published 1 month ago by rhonda reeves
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mundane
I was not impressed with this thesaurus. The New York Times thesaurus is much better and has many more words.
Published 1 month ago by JR
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sent this one back!
I thought it would help my grand children in school and me as a teacher to write better. I thought it would have a list of more diverse synonyms to use when writing. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Claire
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought fot Granddaughter
I bought this as a birthday presnt for my granddaughter and she loved it - it was what she needed.
Published 2 months ago by David Eisenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars
For the Writer who is looking for unusual ways to express him/herself
The book is loved by my seriously gifted grand daughter for whom, at eleven, writing is already much more than a fleeting hobby.
Published 2 months ago by eudoralight
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to read
It is hard to read this on an e-book. I wish I had bought the hard copy. It has loads of interesting and worthwhile information.
Published 2 months ago by Etta R. Schaeffer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great edition for wordsmiths!
I enjoy using the less common words in my writings and this edition really fills the bill. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Published 3 months ago by open-minded
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Thinker's' Thesaures
I like this book because it fits my needs.I though it was very good as a reference for my writing.
Published 3 months ago by Julius J. Baronas
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Thinker's Thesaurus
It was ok. I bought it for a friend as a gift. The hard back covering was a bit warped.
Published 4 months ago by Susan
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