Dear Geist,

What thesaurus do you recommend for a writer wet behind the ears? I used to think they were all pretty much the same, because an English word means about the same thing in any English reference work. But when I looked closer, dang if I didn't see little differences all over the place.

—Janie Drome, North Vancouver

Dear Janie Drome,

We can all be glad that our country hasn't done what some have done: produce and maintain a ginormous “bible” showing the one-and-only way to spell each word, pronounce each word and define each word. This way madness lies, and it cuts right down on the fun of language. At Geist, thesaurus use is considered personal, from a beloved tome so large and heavy that it has to be consulted at the library, to a 50-year-old obvious pirated edition of an ancient Roget, to the quick and quite useful online works.

Our advice to you, part 1: Each time you look something up in any thesaurus, take a good look. Browse another thesaurus or so, to see what they have to offer. Before long, you'll have a favourite, or two, or three.

Our advice, part 2: Get in the habit of turning to your dictionary (or dictionaries) when you're stumped for le mot juste. It won't necessarily give you synonyms or antonyms, but the goodies it does give you are likely to send you in some new directions, which won't take long and will cause you to love our goofy language even more.

—The Editors