An excellent resource book. I use it every day and it has improved my writing. Or, maybe I just confuse everyone with the multitude of words I appear to have at my command. Recommend this book.

It's right on my desk between my dictionary and thesarus where it belongs. When I can't think of the right word - which happens - it's there. I've used it as much as the other two.

Those who study English literature or are involved in translations need to widen their terminology and constantly improve their linguistics. I personally achieved this with numerous dictionaries and one of them was certainly the 21st Century Synonym and Antonym Finder. With its concise and accurate definitions one easily finds the perfect term and also keeps it in mind - and that is also of great importance. With finishing my studies of foreign languages and their literatures, I have been mostly involved in translations and thus been forced to rummage considerably through books and dictionaries - believe me you will find this book indispesanble once you have it.

Writing is such a hard skill to develop because it is so easy to fail. With 1,400 things to be happy about for kids, the child cannot fail. They are writing about things that make them happy. There are no right or wrong answers. The child develops confidence in his/her writing skills and wants to write more. It also helps children develop a sense of creating a diary and that their lives are important. Every first and second grade teacher should include this book in their lesson plans.

If your kids argue a lot and don't think they have anything to be thankful for, this is the book for them. It makes them realize how much they really do have.

It's a great book to pick up and scan through. I think it would be even better if the book was on a disk I could put in my Car CD player. With maybe some meditative music in the background I could just let the words of wisdon sink in on my way home from work. Could someone let me know if that is already a work in process?

I love this book! Daily I read just a few pages to inspire me and sets my mood for the day to do things more wisely. One sentence quotes from Proverbs, to saying heard you heard growing up. This is a fun book to keep in your car to read in traffic or in a bathroom setting. A great gift for those that might be feeling down.

This is another book to add to your personal library if you are the type of person who has ever had to find that special word that says it all.

First off I think Roget's Thesaurus is the best book ever written. I use various versions constantly.

Roget's International Thesaurus, with its index in the back for locating words, is for me as a crossword addict and professional writer the most helpful thesaurus.

The other versions have alphabetized entries like a dictionary and give you far fewer words from which to choose.

My old edition is so worn out the cover has fallen off. My only criticism is that I wish it would be printed in hardback.

Someone should tell Art Bell about this book! I know it's supposed to be a humor book and it was published in 1996, but so many of its predictions are coming true it's downright scary! I've tossed my Nostradamus books in favor of "THE OPTIMIST'S/PESSIMIST'S GUIDE." I predict you will too!

I was recently sitting around with my wife and predicting what the Millenium will bring. She's an optimist, I'm a pessimist. Now imagine my face when I bought a book and saw in its pages not only both of those opposing views represented, but many many more. And they're all screamingly funny (at least the pessimistic ones!) I've read two books by Ed Strnad -- the other one was Growing Old Sucks -- so it's easy to guess which author was the optimist and which the pessimist. I suppose Barbara Kipfer and Strnad actually represent what we all really think. She reflects the hopes and dreams and aspirations we cling to about the future. He squirts seltzer in our faces and tells us what will *really* happen. And with a unique and razor-sharp sense of humor.

As we approach the Millenium, I recommend this book for anyone planning to be around in the year 2000 and beyond.

Hard to describe how useful this book is. Tell people about it, and they're likely to say, 'Oh, you mean a thesaurus,' and you say, 'No, not exactly,' and then they say, 'Oh, a reverse dictionary?' and you say, 'No. Better.' It's for those times when you sort of know what you're trying to say, but you either can't think of the word or you've used a word too much and you need to jiggle loose from your cranium some new ways of trying to say it. And it leads you on and on down an ever branching set of references so pretty soon you find yourself just sitting down and reading the Flip Dictionary instead of writing. It's that much fun.
An invaluable resource, recommended to me by a fellow writer, Jane MacDonald. Thanks, Jane!

I first acquired this book in 1977. It has served me well in writing thousands of direct mail letters and speeches. Kinda-sorta like a Thesaurus, Sisson's often provides a different slant on words.

Although one's search begins with an alphabetized listing, the main body of this thesaurus (its original concept) is organized by category. This means that to find a synonym for e.g., "trouble", you will not simply be presented a list all the possible meanings of the word but you can choose your search depending upon the sense you are looking for. If you mean "annoyance" you will be sent one place for synonyms (nouns, verbs, adj, adv); if your meaning is more "presume upon" you will be sent somewhere else. In the case of "trouble" there are about a dozen places to go in the thesaurus depending upon the subtlety of meaning you are looking for. If you are a writer, this reference work is a sine qua non. Look no further than here for the best thesaurus in the world.

These days it's tempting to believe that you can do without a printed thesaurus. Thesauri are available on the web and there are even thesauri built into word processors. But these are pale substitutes for Roget's sixth edition.

It is much more comprehensive than other Thesauri, but it is still very easy to use. The index in the back contains an alphabetical list of words, and with each, an associated list of finer-grained definitions. For example, suppose you want to describe someone as "mopey" but that word doesn't seem quite right. When you look it up in the index you'll find "sullen" "glum" and "unsociable." Obviously, these have somewhat different characters. Next to each there is a reference to an entry to synonyms organized by category (instead of alphabetically). These lists make up the bulk of the book. Thus, the entry for "sullen" will lead you to a list of words similar in meaning to "sullen," and so on.

What makes this thesaurus easy to use is that the index at the back of the book is complete, so you seldom if ever have the experience of trying to look up a word and then find that it's not there, so you have to try to think of a synonym yourself to gain entry to the thesaurus. Second, there are 330,000 words in the listing of synonyms by category. Considering that the average college student's vocabulary is 60-80,000 words, this thesaurus should satisfy you.

One final note: if you really hate to shell out the money for this book, at least consider getting a used copy of the 5th edition, which came out in the early 90's and it still servicable.

A dictionary of synonyms or a "thesaurus in dictionary form" (now that's phony titling) requires that you think of one of the words by which they sorted the language. A true thesaurus, though, while unfamiliar at first like any new and powerful tool, will let you find the word you are looking for when you can't think of ANY word to start. All you have to do is go to the area with the right sort of ideas and browse a bit. This book only gets better with time. Every writer of every sort needs a copy of this. (Oh, and the index makes a great spelling list for all the words science- and law-obsessed spellcheckers leave out.)

I found this book at the library in early 1994 and was so enchanted by it I told the library I lost it and was going to pay for it. Instead I had our local bookshop order it for me and returned the much thumbed taxpayer's copy to the library. I love books - all kinds of books - but this is my all time favorite. It is DELIGHTFUL!! I have read it cover to cover at least 6-7 times and made many, many, more random readings. Each time I read it I highlight new passages (by now more than half the book is highlighted). I read it when I'm feeling lost and abandoned, when I'm feeling nostalgic, when I'm looking for ideas for dinner, and even when I'm already happy - this book NEVER lets me down! I also have read "The Wish List", by the same author, but I'd love another 14,000 things to be happy about - heck, it doesn't even have to be 14,000, I'll settle for 1,000 (put the bug in Barbara Ann Kipfer's ear!).

I read this book when I was a Marine stationed in Japan. I highlighted all the things in the book that made me happy. That was five years ago, and I still love to look through it; it brings a smile to my face.

This book inspired me to make my own "happy list" once upon a time!! It is basically 612 pages of things that make the author happy. You might say, "how boring!" But, it's not! She received a PHD in Linguistics and that's quite obvious, because not many people could pull this off! I used to use this as a mood book, where I would underline things that made me happy. It would always take away my bad mood, because it would remind me that there is no reason to focus on the bad when there are so many little things in life to remember!
Some examples:
a chance to sleep in
naming your baby
buying fresh flowers
the pleasure of water
smelling corncob-smoked bacon sizzling, maple-scented muffins, and pancakes off the griddle
hair towels
going to three museums in a row
roller skating around the block

See what I mean? A lot of the things on the list have to do with food, really good, home cookin', so beware if you read it while hungry!! It reminds you of all the tiny, great things in the world! Keep it by your bedside table and drift off to sleep with corn muffins, lazy sunday afternoons, and kittens floating in your head!

I've bought several thesauri over the years, including good ole Roget's International, but this one by Barbara Kipfer is by far my favorite because it strikes just the right balance between ease of use and comprehensiveness. Roget's International is undoubtedly the king still for comprehensiveness. Unfortunately, Roget's International is also the most onerous to use, so much so that I rarely ever touch it anymore. Other thesauruses on the market in dictionary format, such as Roget II or Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus, are very easy to use, but unfortunately they have few synonyms under each entry. This thesaurus by Kipfer, on the other hand, is just right. I give it five stars.

This is a great reference. I love the way it's arranged in dictionary form. As well as original alternatives for words it also includes slang words, which is nice for writing. It is 957 pages long, not including the introduction; but the number does include the Concept Index. The actual thesaurus is 889 pages long and is in quite small print. It's a second edition and just like it says on the cover, it's easy to use. It is edited by the Princeton Language Institute.

"Thesaurus" is Latin for "treasury", but all the editions that I came across in my long search of a good one had been anything but. They were either too bulky or too brief, severely abridged or arranged by concepts (!) with alphabetical index at the end. Looking for the right word in these circumstances caused me excruciating pain, both mental and physical. I was in great danger of being sucked in by a tornado of strange, confusing, irrelevant words.

Thankfully, I discovered this book. And what a treasury it is! The dictionary format, 450,000 entries, 1 million word results, a wonderful concept index on the back which shows how a word fits into a pool of similar ones - these are only some of the many highlights of this edition. Not only do I keep it by my side every time I sit down to write, but often look into it for pure pleasure, partaking of the wealth it stores.