Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#21

Post by Fiahil » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:07 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #18

It 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…

This rule is not constrained only to english, it happens to exist in french too (and probably other languages).

Also, reading well written texts is supposed to expand your vocabulary and understanding of the language. How's thats suppose to work is someone is hammering the same words over and over again?

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#22

Post by rahimnathwani » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:09 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #18

It 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…

"It 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?"

Perhaps there's a word which more elegantly and accurately conveys your meaning, but which isn't on the tip of your tongue.

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#23

Post by jobigoud » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:16 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #7

I think you might want to look at a thesaurus. http://www.thesaurus.com/

+1. That's what I do. I have a shortcut search so that I can simply type t any time I need an alternative word.

It's not only useful for prose by the way. I sometimes use it to find the most appropriate name for a variable, function, API entry point, or for a small project.

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#24

Post by dfc » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:16 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #18

It 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…

I don't think this once per paragraph rule is much of a rule. It might be a useful for adjectives and adverbs but that is it.

PS synonymous words = synonyms

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#25

Post by atmosx » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:18 AM UTC

OSX's dictionary is quite awesome actually. I use that mostly and might also use Google.

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#26

Post by Symbiote » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:19 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #18

It 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…

Because the words aren't exactly synonymous, and different words have subtly different meanings.

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#27

Post by syllogism » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:19 AM UTC

dandare wrote: post #3

Not sure if this is what yo are looking for, but as a non native speaker, when I am not sure which word is appropriate in given context I will search the whole phrase. If it appears on obscure message boards then it is probably not what I the right word in the context, if it appears in ft.com then it is good to go. The quotation marks in the search are essential.

Google books ngram counts are a slightly more precise way to do this. But yeah --- this is my standard way to explain to non-native speakers what works and what doesn't :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#28

Post by judofyr » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:19 AM UTC

I use TheFreeDictionary a lot. Just type "tfd.com/" and it gives you multiple definitions from different dictionaries. Example: http://tfd.com/intelligent

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#29

Post by hiacc » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:20 AM UTC

My vote goes to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ or http://www.tfd.com/ for short. Check out the http://www.tfd.com/beautiful example

Re: Ask HN: How do you search for an appropriate English word?

#30

Post by impostervt » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 11:20 AM UTC

I had this problem when I was trying to figure out good domain names. It's one of the reasons I ended up building this side project. It shows synonyms, but also related words, other types of that words, words that rhyme, derivatives, etc.

https://www.wordsapi.com