National Thesaurus Day is celebrated every year on January 18. Peter Mark Roget was the man who made the first creation of a Thesaurus. He began writing it in 1848 and finished in 1852. It had about 15,000 words and was called "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition." What comes to your mind when you hear the word thesaurus, if you say a dictionary, we would not blame you. As both these books are a collection of words and their meanings. But they are not the same. On National Thesaurus Day, we tell you the difference between these two 'compilations' of words. Who is a Nerd? How is it Different From Geek and Dork?

Difference Between Thesaurus and Dictionary

A thesaurus refers to a book that contains lists of words and phrases with similar meanings. The words are arranged in groups, listed with their synonyms, and may be alphabetically or conceptually arranged. A dictionary is a collection of words along with their meaning, definition and description of usage. A dictionary is always in an alphabetical order. It also tells you what the word means in same or another language. A dictionary is more detailed form of collection as it also provides the etymologies and pronunciations of words. Airgasm is the New Word in COVID-19 Vocabulary, What Does it Mean? Know Its Definition as Twitterati Go Crazy Over This Latest Slang.

Dictionary is used to look up meaning of a particular word or know the meaning of its origin. Thesaurus may not contain all the words of a language. It provides alternatives to a specific word, synonyms sometimes antonyms as well. You may know the meaning of a word but not the exact word, is when you refer to a thesaurus. A dictionary is what you look for the meaning of the exact word. So now you know and with that you have an addition to your vocabulary.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2021 11:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).