LibGuides: EDU 3310: Multicultural Education: Thesaurus

What is a Thesaurus?

A book or electronic resource that lists words in groups of synonyms and related terms.

group of synonyms: words/terms that have the same definition and scope as the word/term you thought of
related term: a word or heading that is related in definition and scope but not broader or narrower

Thesaurus by Merriam-Webster
Search more than 275,000 synonyms, antonyms, related words, and idiomatic phrases. Find concise definitions pinpointing the meaning shared by synonyms, and sample sentences showing how words are used in context. The thesaurus is more than just a list of synonyms; it is your guide to more precise and effective use of language.
Thesaurus.com
Thesaurus.com is the world’s largest and most trusted free online thesaurus brought to you by Dictionary.com. For over 20 years, Thesaurus.com has been helping millions of people improve their mastery of the English language and find the precise word with over 3 million synonyms and antonyms and the ability to filter search results by relevance, word length, and complexity.

A controlled vocabulary thesaurus organizes a database into predetermined subject terms that everything about that subject falls under.

By using a controlled vocabulary thesaurus you do not have to guess among a host of terms that are similar in meaning to find relevant articles.

The ERIC Thesaurus is an example of a controlled vocabulary thesaurus.

ERIC Thesaurus of Descriptors
The ERIC Thesaurus contains a total of 11,721 terms. There are 4,520 Descriptors and 7,068 Synonyms. There are also 133 Dead terms which are no longer used as Descriptors but remain in the Thesaurus to aid in searching older records. The ERIC Thesaurus was last updated in October 2015. The updated Thesaurus includes 19 new Descriptors, 28 new Synonyms, and changes to 17 existing terms.

For more information about the ERIC Thesaurus and how to use it, please visit the "ERIC Thesaurus" tab