Sorry, My Thesaurus, But No

Looking to improve your word choice in your writing? Here's one tool I don't recommend: the standby of the fifth grade writing test, the thesaurus.

Don't get me wrong, the thesaurus can be a great tool, but it has a tendency to be abused and overused. If you must use a thesaurus, use it sparingly. It boils down to one problem:

The difference between denotation and connotation.

Denotation: the exact, dictionary definition of a word.
(For example, "thin" means "having very little flesh.")

Connotation: the associations carried with a word that are not defined explicitly.
(This gets a little more nebulous.)

Thesauruses do not provide connotation, and that is where most newer writers fall into trouble.

Let's say, for example, you want to describe a character who is thin. But "thin" is an overused and vague word, so you crack open your thesaurus to try and find a better one. Here is what you might see:

Thin: [1] flimsy, slim, slight, diaphanous, [2] lean, skinny, scraggy, lank, scrawny, slender

A lot of these would work fine, but if you describe a character as "diaphanous," thinking it's the most impressive sounding, you might run into problems. Diaphanous could be used as a metaphorical way to describe a character's personality, but if they physically appear that way then they're probably a ghost. ("Diaphanous" means "something which is sheer and light, nearly transparent").

There's still a lot of good words on the list though, so which do you choose? Flimsy carries the idea of something without strength, breakable. Slim and slender are both pleasingly thin and shapely, whereas slight carries more the idea of someone small. Lean implies thinness born of exercise and thus carries the idea of endurance, but scraggy and scrawny can imply that someone isn't getting enough food or is otherwise unhealthily thin. Lank describes someone who is tall as well as thin, and finally, skinny is our nearly neutral word, neither pleasing nor displeasing.

See how subtle the shade of meaning can be? But if you opened up your thesaurus and chose a word without already knowing these things you could end up conveying the wrong idea to your readers.

So when is a good time to use a thesaurus? If you're really stuck on a word, a thesaurus can give you ideas of which words to use. But for it to be truly effective, you need to be familiar with the connotations of those words to begin with.

The best way to learn the connotations of words is to simply read them in a lot of contexts. After a while, the similar thread and feeling in all of them will become apparent and second nature. As with most things, the best way to improve your vocabulary is through use, taking words in and giving them out. (Just make sure you use them correctly.)

A final note on word choice: don't be afraid of the bland word. Sometimes, it's okay to say something is thin, bad, even nice. If all of the words you use have punch, none of them are going to stand out. If something is unremarkable, it's okay to describe it using an unremarkable word. This is how we speak. Sometimes, it just flows more naturally, without distraction.

So play around with things. Read a lot. Look words up. And occasionally, occasionally, dust off the old thesaurus.