Useful Tools: Thesaurus and Corpora

Today we have found out two interesting educational tools!

Thesaurus

Thesaurus could be defined as a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning. In other words, a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms.

As you can see in the picture, Thesaurus gives you a long list of synonyms and antonyms. However, its usefulness is based on how the advanced searching tools allow you to organize the list.

By:

• Relevance (A-Z/Z-A)
• Complexity (+ or -)
• Length (+ or -)
• Common words
• Informal words
• Type of word (through the pull-down menu)

If we don't have enough vocabulary or we are trying to find the proper word, we can always ask Thesaurus for some help.

Corpora

Corpora are compilations of oral and written texts that try to offer an accurate spectrum of the use of a language in a diversity of situations. 

As the picture shows, enables the study of wider patterns and collocation of words and allows analysis of multiple parameters at the same time. Therefore, is very useful in the case of expressions, prepositions, idioms and cultural references. 

Results obtained for "to be focused X":

Links:
Thesaurus
British National Corpus
Linguee