Bare Bones Writing Tips #2: Find That Word!

writingbonesblog:

As much as teachers and writers recommend you never consult a thesaurus, there are times when you can’t quite get a hold of the word you’re searching for. Whether it’s a thesaurus or dictionary, you need to consult some sort of word-oriented book or site. So, to help you out, here’s a few that go beyond that:

Tip of My Tongue:
– fairly thorough database (though not huge)
– allows you to search for a word based on partial spelling content, partial definition, or certain letters involved
-supplies only one definition per word, but helps narrow down your search

One Look:
– a reverse dictionary; look up a word by its definition
– supplies a four column list of up to 100 suggestions
– now filterable by verb, adverb, adjective, or noun
– each suggested word is a link to a page with all its definitions, linked to the site it was indexed from
– might take a few searches to find what you’re looking for, but very helpful

RhymeZone:
– a rhyming dictionary
– supplies potential rhymes by number of syllable
– has links to definitions of suggestions
– simple and effective

And, for anyone who just needs another word than that one adjective they’ve already used a dozen times in the past 500 words, there’s always Thesaurus.com.

Good luck, and happy writing!