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A thesaurus is a collection of synonyms (words having the same or almost the same meaning as a particular word) and, in some cases, antonyms (words opposite in meaning to a specific word). A literary thesaurus should not be viewed as a comprehensive listing of synonyms for an individual word but, rather, as possible choices dependent on the user's needs.
A thesaurus is dissimilar from the dictionary in that it does not define words or provide pronunciations.
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The first version of a thesaurus was written by Philo of Byblos in the 4th century and titled the Amarakosha. It was set down in verse form.
Peter Mark Roget compiled the first modern thesaurus in 1850, which was published in 1852. Entries are not listed alphabetically in Roget's Thesaurus but by concept.
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The term "thesaurus" evolved from the ancient Greek word "thesauros" which meant "storehouse" or "treasury".
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Informational thesauri are intended for informational retrieval. An informational thesauri is devoted to one topic or field of study. These thesauri are organized to make existing relationships between theories explicit, thereby requiring a more complicated format. All words are contextual in order that users may distinguish the proper application of the word. Terms are grouped in successive orders or classes in accordance with international standards.
Information thesauri are also used to index online material. They contained controlled vocabulary for this purpose.
An informational thesauri may sometimes be known as an "ontogoly" by those involved in the development of artificial intelligence.
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Informational thesauri are assembled by information experts. These have singular terminology to define various forms of terms and relationships.
Terms are words for which specific meanings have been developed to transmit ideas. Terms are generally nouns or, in some cases, verbs. Scope notes are used to differentiate terms which may have more than one meaning or contextual use.
Term relationships refers to connections between terms. There are categorized into three groupings as follows:
Hierarchical: Hierarchical terms means words that have mutual relationships to each other. A "Broader Term" is a generalized word that covers an idea or concept while a "Narrower Term" is more specific to the same idea or concept. Where a Broader Term exists, there is usually a minimum of one Narrower Term available. Broader and Narrower Terms indicate class relationships such as meronyms and holonyms. An example, "finger" is a meronym of "hand" (the holonym) because a finger is part of a hand.
Equivalency: This relationship is used to equate synonyms and near-synonyms. There are guides which designate whether an authorized term may be substituted unauthorized term. Authorized terms are indicated as "Use (USE)" and unauthorized terms are noted as "Used For (UF)". The authorized term may also be denoted as the Preferred Term or Descriptor while unauthorized terms may be known as "entry points", "lead-in terms" or "non-preferred terms".
Associative: This relationship is for terms that do not fall into the hierarchical or equivalency categories. The application of Associative relationships is limited as they decrease the quality of specific searches.
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A thesaurus's feature functions are to:
• Avoid repetitious use of a word
• Discover alternate words to express an idea or concept more conclusively
• Determine a word that is applicable for the context
• Locate a word that is relevant for the intended purpose of the written materials
• Assist in expressing an idea or concept more effectively
• Avoid clichê©s
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Thesauri are formatted in a relatively simple manner which enables the user to easily locate a synonym. Headwords (the word for which the user desires a synonym) are listed alphabetically. In situations where the headword has more than one meaning, a homograph number will be assigned to each headword (i.e. lie1, lie2). An abbreviation for the part of speech the headword is, such as v for verb or n for noun, follows each headword. Synonyms for each headword are listed alphabetically.
Some thesauri may contain antonyms, confusable words and phrase sub entries.
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Thesauri are available in print, online and via computer software.
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