Dictionary or thesaurus? What's the difference?A dictionary tells you what a word means. It gives you a "definition" for each word. When you want to know what a word means, you look in a dictionary. A dictionary lists definitions. A thesaurus gives you words that mean the same as, or nearly the same as, another word. When you can't find the exact word you want, you look in a thesaurus. A thesaurus lists synonyms and similar words. (The plural of "thesaurus" is "thesauri" or "thesauruses".)
Synonyms and antonymsA synonym is a word that means exactly the same as, or very nearly the same as, another word in the same language. For example, "close" is a synonym of "shut". An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word, for example "good" and "bad".
