Word 2000 in a Nutshell

Name

Tools → Language → Thesaurus

Synopsis

Word provides its own thesaurus for looking up alternatives to commonly used words. Choose Tools → Language → Thesaurus (or press Shift-F7) to open the Thesaurus dialog box (Figure 9-3).

Note

Word’s Thesaurus is not installed by default. If you did not make it part of the installation, be ready with the CD the first time you use the command.

Figure 9-3. Finding an alternative word or phrase in Word’s thesaurus

If the selected word can be used in different parts of speech (such as “grace,” which can be a noun or a verb), choose the appropriate part of speech from those displayed in the Meanings list box and view the matching synonyms in the Replace with Synonym box. To replace the selected word with one of the synonyms listed, select it, and click the Replace button. A list of antonyms is often displayed at the bottom of the synonyms list.

If the selection is misspelled (or there’s just no match for it in Word’s dictionary), the Meanings box in the Thesaurus dialog changes to an Alphabetical List box and displays a list of alternative words. These are generated by Word’s Spell Checker.

To find the meaning for a word that’s not already in the document, open the Thesaurus and type the word in the Replace with Synonym text box. Click the Look Up button to see a list of synonyms for the word.

Access Thesaurus Suggestions on a Context Menu

Right-click ...