Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Looking for just the right word?

This is topic Looking for just the right word? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by MattLeo (Member # 9331) on :

Princeton's Cognitive Science Lab has developed a database of over 150K words organized into about 120K overlapping sets of meanings, then organized connected those sets of meanings (synsets) by is-a and part-of relationships. In other words, they've developed one of the largest and most sophisticated thesauruses ever. The best implementation of access to that database I've ever found was an iPhone app, but since I've given up my iPod touch I can't use it anymore, and have been looking for a good online replacement.

Since WordNet is open source, there's lots of on-line dictionaries and thesauruses that use the WordNet database, but they often lack the vital links between word senses that makes the dataset useful, preferring to implement cool visual effects instead. I've just found an on-line interface to WordNet that has the vital semantic links: http://www.wordnet-online.com .

For example, take this link for the word "anxiety": http://www.wordnet-online.com/anxiety.shtml . You can follow links downward to more specific terms like "panic" or "hypochondria". Or you can follow one of the "is a kind of" links up to "mental state", where you'll find terms like "anhedonia", "hypnosis", or "enchantment".

That's an example of "ontology", or "kind-of" relationships. But WordNet also captures mereology, or "part-of" relationships, and "instance-of" relationships.

Check out the entry for "battalion": http://www.wordnet-online.com/battalion.shtml . From that you can glean that a battalion is not only a kind of "military unit", it is part of a "regiment" and has one or more "companies" as parts.

The mereology links aren't perfect; you have to look up "division" (the unit above regiment) manually, and from there you end up in an alternate part-of hierarchy (corps > division > battle group > company > platoon). Likewise "squad" is not connected to "platoon", and "fireteam" is entirely missing.

Although the database is imperfect, I find the linkages useful when I need just the right word for "fear" or "anxiety".

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I have that trouble with crossword puzzles...finding the "right" words means the definitions-as-given don't seem to suggest the answer.

Didn't realize there were apps for this sort of thing, but I'm so technophobic I've only just progressed to a Nook Color---my cell phone, kept in the glove compartment for emergencies, and taken on vacations for the better long distance rate, is old and designed just for making phone calls. I suppose I should upgrade, one of these days, real soon.

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

I'm partial to synonym dictionaries for finding Just the Right Word, which investigate word usage, context, denotation and connotation, idiom, figurative expression, and strength or degrees of meaning. Not thesauri, which merely index words by similar relationships. Comprehensive definition dictionaries do the former to some degree as do language usage dictionaries to some degree.

[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited September 20, 2011).]

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Love it, thanks for the link. Will help me help my 2nd grader complete her homework, complete with requirements to find 15 more words with the latin root "pen/pend" Sigh.

Posted by MattLeo (Member # 9331) on :

If you want to try one of the nifty visual interfaces, this is a good one: http://www.visuwords.com/ . You can double click on one of the bubbles to expand it.

I should note I don't think these things are a replacement for a synonym dictionary or thesaurus, but the navigability of the interface makes them a handy aid for sharpening up a fuzzy picture. A character is fearful -- no, make that anxious... no, apprehensive. A character has some disease... rheumatism ... he is arthritic. The woman is blond, towheaded, no, make that ash-blond. A skip through the complexion link takes us to tawny. I take that back; her complexion is the creamy white of a willow lathe.

[This message has been edited by MattLeo (edited September 21, 2011).]