Offline Thesaurus

I'm trying to find a thesaurus that I can use offline, as I will soon be spending a lot of time writing in a cabin in the woods - emphatically not online. Major considerations include:

• I use Thesaurus.com when I'm online - and love it, as it delivers a wide range of slang and non-standard options. MS Word thesaurus is, IMO, too limited.
• I know, I could buy a hard-copy Thesaurus, but...

Ideally, I'd like to be able to download all of Thesaurus.com (or one equally robust) onto my hard drive, and drive off into the hinterland for a month, fully supplied with synonyms.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark David

 

I agree with the moose.

Thesaurus.com is nothing but an on-line dictionary of synonyms. IMHO, that's a very poor substitute for an actual thesaurus.

https://www.amazon.com/Rogets-International-Thesaurus-Barbara-Kipfer/dp/0061715212/ref=sr_1_2?crid=153SPCYEI4CQU&dchild=1&keywords=roget%27s+international+thesaurus%2C+7th+edition&qid=1632346156&sprefix=Roget%27s+International+Thesaurus%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-2

Note: This link is to the seventh edition, which is the one I use. There is a newer edition, and it receives as much (or more) criticism as it does praise. The nice thing about the seventh edition is that it's easy to find affordable used copies in good condition.

 

no but how do you actually use Roget's thesaurus without going to the index and using it like a synonym dictionary but with extra steps? The way my brain works, i could never use that sort of taxonomical organization to find a word. I think synonym dictionaries are better, tbh. Simpler, anyway.

 

Personally, if there is a thesaurus you really like, I'd just put a 'filler' word in the manuscript, highlight it, and then go back and update it when you are online or doing your first edit.

When I'm writing a rough draft I use onelookthesaurus.com for most problem words but highlight a lot of them for a more thorough review later. Keep in mind some of the examples on onelookthesaurus.com are wrong or misspelled.

 

You don't use a thesaurus (a true thesaurus) without using the index. That's what it's there for. I can't disagree that a dictionary of synonyms is easier to use, but there's a reason -- it offers far fewer choices. When you are searching for that elusive, perfect word, it's often a shade of meaning you need, rather than a direct synonym. Opinions vary, I suppose but, IMHO, there's simply no way that a dictionary of synonyms can even begin to compare with a true thesaurus.

 

https://sequencepublishing.com/1/thesage/thesage.html

https://gadgets-reviews.com/review/1504-best-electronic-dictionaries.html

 

This is fully offline, can be used free, but only for windows
https://www.mediachance.com/cquill/

 

Also, also…. the humble placeholder [ ] for immediately unretrievable words, or words you suspect’d better fit. Big holdup that has one (me) unwittingly divert from task is the venture into any thesaurus, of sorts, and lose forward momentum. Yes, if drafting along, I’m convinced it’s best to stay in the wake till enthusiasm wanes or convenient juncture’s arrived at.

 

So they want us to pay them 50 bucks to become a beta tester?

Thanks, but no thanks.

 

No, you can use it free, the thesaurus is very comprehensive - in fact you have 14 thesauri all sorted by a certain style. And it can be used all without paying anything in free mode.

 

I didn't see any reference to a free mode -- or even a free download -- on the web site.

 

Aha.

Yes, I saw the trial version. I'm accustomed to "trial" versions having an expiration date of 30 days (or less), so I didn't even go there.