: I don't use it. I would caution against others using it, or any other thesaurus. I think that a large, varied vocabulary is a great thing, but the problem with gaining your vocabulary from

I don't use it. I would caution against others using it, or any other thesaurus.

I think that a large, varied vocabulary is a great thing, but the problem with gaining your vocabulary from a reference source rather than from reading prose is that you don't really get the more subtle meanings and shadings. Somebody once said that there's no such thing as an exact synonym, and while I'm not sure if that's true, I definitely think that thesauri go way too far in claiming that words are synonyms when they really aren't. I just looked at the word 'home' in an online thesaurus, and there's not one of the suggested synonyms that would work even in a simple sentence like "I want to go home," and some of the suggestions are just plain wacky. (http://thesaurus.com/browse/home).

I think that thesauri treat writing as if it's a science, when really it's an art, or at least a craft.

ETA: But after some thought - maybe a thesaurus would be useful when you just need your memory jogged. Like, not as a way to learn whole new words, but rather as a tool for times when you know that the word you've used isn't quite right (either because of repetition or because the connotation isn't quite what you're looking for), and need suggested replacements. I can see a thesaurus being useful in that context, as long as you restrict yourself to only using words with which you're already familiar.

So, with that understanding - I'd say the best time to use it would be when you're reading over your work, and find a word that doesn't quite work. I wouldn't use it for first drafts, when you're just trying to get the big ideas down, but I can see it being useful for fine tuning. Interesting.

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: Complex, long sentences are less common in modern English than in modern German, or in the English of a century ago, or in Latin. Most style guides agree that a sentence that one has to

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