thesaurus

16th century, from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. Doublet of treasure.

• IPA^(key): /θɪˈsɔːɹəs/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəs

thesaurus (plural thesauri or thesauruses)

1. A publication, traditionally in the form of a book and now often online, that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms and other semantic relations) for the words of a given language.

   "Roget" is the leading brand name for a print English thesaurus that lists words under general concepts rather than just close synonyms.

2. (archaic) A dictionary or encyclopedia.
3. (information science) A hierarchy of subject headings — canonic titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

• synonymicon

• metathesaurus
• thesaural

• ontology
• Wiktionary's thesaurus
• Appendix:Roget's thesaurus classification
• Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus
• Appendix:Moby Thesaurus II

• thesaurus in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “thesaurus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• OneLook Thesaurus in OneLook, 2023

• thēnsaurus
• tēsaurus, tēsōrus (Low Latin)

From Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /tʰeːˈsau̯.rus/, [t̪ʰeːˈs̠äu̯rʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /teˈsau̯.rus/, [t̪eˈs̬äːu̯rus]

thēsaurus m (genitive thēsaurī); second declension

1. treasure, hoard
   • 405, Jerome and others, Vulgate, Daniel 1:2

     […] et vasa intulit in domum thesauri dei sui

     " […] and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god."

2. a dear friend, loved one
3. a vault for treasure
4. chest, strongbox
5. repository, collection

Second-declension noun.

• thēsaurārius
• thēsaurensis
• thēsaurizātor
• thēsaurizō

• “thesaurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “thesaurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• thesaurus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• thesaurus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “thesaurus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “thesaurus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

thesaurus m (plural thesauri or thesaurus)

1. thesaurus (dictionary of synonyms)

   Synonyms: tesauro, (Portugal) dicionário de sinónimos, (Brazil) dicionário de sinônimos