thesaurus
/θɪˈsoːɹəs/ noun
Forms thesauri thesauruses
- noun A publication that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms and other semantic relations) for the words of a given language. “"Roget" is the leading brand name for a print English thesaurus that lists words under general concepts rather than just close synonyms.”
- noun (archaic) A dictionary or encyclopedia.
- noun (information science) A hierarchy of subject headings: canonical titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.
Synonyms
Etymology
16th century, borrowed from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. Doublet of treasure.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A treasury or storehouse; hence, a repository, especially of knowledge; --often applied to a comprehensive work, like a dictionary or cyclopedia.
Etymology [L. See Treasure.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “thesaurus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details