There are many ways to use a thesaurus to find antonyms. Most often people tend to use it alphabetically – that is to search for the word in which they need the antonym for in alphabetical order. This makes sense because a thesaurus is primarily set up for an alphabetical search – the hard copy thesaurus is set up as such. However, there are plenty of other ways to use a thesaurus to find antonyms. Below are a few ways that come to mind.
The Hard Copy Thesaurus
In the days of yesteryear, prior to the Internet being an information highway, students had to either go to the store or the library to find a thesaurus. Bookstores usually had many different types of hard copy thesaurus reference books. Some were as thick and large as the biggest dictionary on the market, while others were just pocket-sized. And still there were some that were thin enough to fit into any folder or three-ringed binder.
A standard thesaurus would normally provide the synonyms of just about every word used in the English language. However many would not provide the antonyms. In order to find antonyms in some of the hard copy thesaurus books, students had to either look in the back of the thesaurus or resort to making the ever dreaded trek to the library in order to use a thesaurus to find antonyms. The advent of the Internet has made searching for antonyms a piece of cake for students worldwide.
The Thesaurus Online
The quest for antonyms has never been easier. The Internet provides unlimited access to several thesauruses. This basically means that the sky is the limit when using an Internet-based thesaurus. More often than not online thesauruses provide a repository of antonyms for use by students and teachers alike. All students have to do is type a word into the search field of the thesaurus and click the option for an antonym. After clicking on “search” almost instantly a list of antonyms will come up for the word that you typed into the search field.
How Do You Use a Thesaurus to Find Antonyms
It can be a bit tricky to find antonyms when you use a thesaurus. At first glance, it looks no different than a dictionary. From the cover to the contents, everything resembles a dictionary. There are two formats in which a thesaurus can be set up. The first is through an alphabetical presentation where you would simply look up the word alphabetically.
The second way that a thesaurus can be set up is through an index. A slightly more complicated way to search, in an index format a thesaurus is used by searching for your word in the back of the book in the index. Your word will be listed with a certain page numbers where your word may appear as a synonym for other words.
In the index capacity, it can be a bit challenging to find antonyms. This is because a thesaurus is met to be a dictionary for synonyms, so in order to find the antonym of a certain word you would need to look up the word and any synonyms that may come to mind. It is much easier to use the thesauruses online.
Thesauruses in Software
If you have ever worked on Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, then you might have noticed that there is a thesaurus that is built in as a feature of the software. Usually, when you go to spell check your work, you will see the option for a dictionary or a thesaurus under the same menu.
Once you click on the “thesaurus” option, a small window will appear within your document where you can type in your word of choice and click on the option for antonyms. After clicking on the antonym option, and then clicking on “enter” or “search,” several results will be displayed. It can very easy to use a thesaurus to find antonyms.
