Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Third Edition

Contributing Editors: David Auburn, Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Michael Dirda, Bryan A. Garner, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester
Compiled by Christine Lindberg, Foreword by Rick Moody, and Introduction by Ben Zimmer

Find the right word quickly, with the most useful synonyms given first and the headwords arranged alphabetically.
Learn to avoid common writing pitfalls with notes on English usage throughout the text and a comprehensive language guide.
Seek inspiration in more than 200 word reflections by prominent contemporary writers.
Express yourself more accurately with "Choose the Right Word" boxes delineating the differences in meaning between similar words.
See how words are actually used with real-life examples from the Oxford Corpus.

New to this Edition:

Hundreds of new words, phrases, and senses
Over 200 new literary and humorous quotations highlighting essential vocabulary
Original word reflections by new contributing writers including Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Joshua Ferris, Sam Lipsyte, Suleiman Osman, and Anna Deavere Smith
Redesigned graphical word toolkits show the most common combinations of words

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Third Edition

Contributing Editors: David Auburn, Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Michael Dirda, Bryan A. Garner, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester
Compiled by Christine Lindberg, Foreword by Rick Moody, and Introduction by Ben Zimmer

Description

Much more than a word list, the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus is a browsable source of inspiration as well as an authoritative guide to selecting and using vocabulary. This essential guide for writers provides real-life example sentences and a careful selection of the most relevant synonyms, as well as new usage notes, hints for choosing between similar words, a Word Finder section organized by subject, and a comprehensive language guide. The text is also peppered with thought-provoking reflections on favorite (and not-so-favorite) words by noted contemporary writers, including Joshua Ferris, Francine Prose, David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, and Simon Winchester, many newly commissioned for this edition.
The third edition revises and updates this innovative reference, adding hundreds of new words, senses, and phrases to its more than 300,000 synonyms and 10,000 antonyms. New features in this edition include over 200 literary and humorous quotations highlighting notable usages of words, and a revised graphical word toolkit feature showing common word combinations based on evidence in the Oxford Corpus. There is also a new introduction by noted language commentator Ben Zimmer.

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Third Edition

Contributing Editors: David Auburn, Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Michael Dirda, Bryan A. Garner, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester
Compiled by Christine Lindberg, Foreword by Rick Moody, and Introduction by Ben Zimmer

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Third Edition

Contributing Editors: David Auburn, Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Michael Dirda, Bryan A. Garner, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester
Compiled by Christine Lindberg, Foreword by Rick Moody, and Introduction by Ben Zimmer

Author Information

Contributors:

Rick Moody (Foreword); Ben Zimmer (Introduction); word reflections by Rae Armantrout, David Auburn, David Crystal, Lydia Davis, Michael Dirda, Joshua Ferris, Bryan A. Garner, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Sam Lipsyte, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Padgett Powell, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Anna Deavere Smith, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester.

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Third Edition

Contributing Editors: David Auburn, Rae Armantrout, David Crystal, Michael Dirda, Bryan A. Garner, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Horowitz, David Lehman, Stephin Merritt, Suleiman Osman, Francine Prose, Craig Raine, Ammon Shea, Zadie Smith, Jean Strouse, David Thomson, David Foster Wallace, and Simon Winchester
Compiled by Christine Lindberg, Foreword by Rick Moody, and Introduction by Ben Zimmer

From Our Blog

Words like lumps of coal

It's the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, except the writer throwing her manuscript across the room. What words will Santa give her? Gifts of 'stillicide' or 'ectoplasm' for her National Book Award ' or lumps of coal for failing NaNoWriMo. We'd like to share a few reflections on terrible words from writers such as David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, and Michael Dirda in the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus below.

Posted on December 24, 2012

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Finding the right word

How do you choose the right word? Some just don't fit what you're trying to convey, either in the labor of love prose for your creative writing class, or the rogue auto-correct function on your phone. Can you shed lacerations instead of tears? How is the word barren an attack on women? How do writers such as Joshua Ferris, Francine Prose, David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, and Simon Winchester weigh and inveigh against words?

Posted on August 31, 2012

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