This is a problem I would like to see solved. I'm very often in situation where I have a word on my tongue but can't remember exactly what it is. I usually end up googling but sometimes it's not enough. It's hard to google on abstract things like this.
Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
11–20 of 56 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#12I'll go to a translate tool, enter the word in my native language, and look at all the possible translations
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#13You can always ask someone you know how would they say it. Works most of the times when Google isn't there for me.
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#14I google for "define:word" to check for spelling, but a thesaurus is usually available in the drop down menu. Then I search words with similar meaning to find the word on the tip of my tongue.
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#15I sometimes start typing a part of the sentence in Google Search and see what comes up in the auto-complete.
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#16I usually use thesaurus.com and oxforddictionaries.com
If that doesn't do it I check quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl and english.stackexchange.com and maybe books.google.com/ngrams to find out what's commonly used ...
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#17I always use spotlight search on mac [CMD+SPACE], which returns a dictionary result in the list of options from what you type.
From there, I open the dictionary app and check the thesaurus.
I seldom need any other sources that what is already on my Mac :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#18It is kind of interesting that people actually need to look for synonymous words, because if you have one word that describes what you want to express, why do you need another word for it?
Well, it seems that when writing English prose, it is considered bad style to use the same word more than once in a paragraph, and the offense becomes greater when using the word more often. This "rule" is, from a logical standpoint, of course complete nonsense, but nevertheless it exists.
So, this makes me wonder, can't we write a program that automatically "synonymizes" a text, and thus fixes any problems with this style rule?
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#19Most innovative service I know: http://www.netspeak.org. It does exactly what the article talks about: offering a word by filling a hole in a sentence or phrase.
Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?
#20It is kind of interesting that people actually need to look for synonymous words, because if you have one word that describes what you want to express, why do you need another word for it? Well, it seems that when writing English prose, it is considered bad style to use the same word more than once in a paragraph, and the offense becomes greater when using the word more often. This "rule" is, from a logical standpoin…
> So, this makes me wonder, can't we write a program that automatically "synonymizes" a text, and thus fixes any problems with this style rule?
Write this then run some well know writing through it, and put it in a blog.
The absurdist prose that results would be amazing.