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Compact Oxford Thesaurus for Students

Synonyms in action

Making sure a sentence works

Words with the same general meaning don't necessarily behave in the same way. They may follow different grammatical patterns or be used in a different place in a sentence, or they may be used more frequently with different words. For example, ill is a synonym for sick, but you can't always directly replace one with the other in a sentence because ill isn't usually used in front of a noun:

She's taking time off work to care for her sick child

She's taking time off work to care for her ill child

She's taking time off work to care for her child who is ill.

This means that it's not always possible to replace one word with another without making a few other changes to your sentence at the same time. If you choose a good synonym but don't use it properly, you're likely to give the impression that you are not really familiar with the word and have only chosen it because it sounds impressive, or because you can't think of anything else.

Most thesauruses can help with this issue by pointing up the patterns followed by different synonyms listed in an entry. Take a look at sense 1 of the entry consider from the Compact Oxford Thesaurus for Students.

consider verb
1 Isabel considered her choices: think about, contemplate, reflect on , examine, review; mull over, ponder, deliberate on, chew over, meditate on, ruminate on; assess, evaluate, weigh up, appraise; informal size up.

It shows that, although verbs like consider, think, reflect, and so on have similar meanings, they don't follow the same patterns in a sentence. If you were to replace this use of consider with think or reflect you'd need to say:

Isabel thought about her choices

or:

Isabel reflected on her choices.

Sometimes the grammar is more complicated. Look at the entry for award:

award verb
the society awarded him a silver medal: give, grant, accord, assign; confer on, bestow on, present to, endow with, decorate with.

If you decided to replace award with confer on or bestow on, the example sentence would need to be reworded:

The society conferred/bestowed a silver medal on him.

And if you chose the synonym present with, you'd have to say:

The society presented him with a silver medal.

In these cases, the thesaurus entry alerts you to different grammar patterns and a good dictionary will provide further help if you are still not sure. But remember that it's always best to stick to vocabulary you are familiar with and can use confidently if you are in any doubt.

Tips

When you replace one word with another in a sentence, always say the sentence to yourself to make sure that it still sounds like good English.

Use your thesaurus in conjunction with a good, up-to-date dictionary for extra information about the way words work in a sentence.

Extra features in a thesaurus

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