Dictionary Thesaurus combinations

Myself not being a walking dictionary-thesaurus, I usually need to refer to these helpful volumes when in the mood to write fancy nothings.

Thus far, my favourite is the CD version of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 10th Edition (COD10) with thesaurus.com on Mozilla Firefox. Oxford English Dictionary Online is used as a back up in the rare occasions when I find COD10 unsatisfactory.

To add thesaurus.com to your search bar in Firefox, select ‘add engines’. Search for thesaurus.com and add it to your list.

Anyone got a better electronic thesaurus to recommend?

Double clicking on a word anywhere in Windows will cause the word to be displayed on COD10. Naturally, it’s a very useful tool when browsing the alternative words generated by thesaurus.com.

The only long term problem with this arrangement is centred on OED Online. Annual subscription to OED Online for individuals is a massively frightful £200 (RM1320 at the current exchange rate). When Yuan Harng graduates from university, I’ll no longer be able to access his university’s account. Drat.

Why Oxford?

That’s because I think that a gray colored ax with an aluminum handle looks wrong. Guess it’s a matter of personal preference- don’t over analyze it.

Switch to Firefox 1.0.5. You will have no regrets, except maybe ask ‘why didn’t I do it earlier’. Download it here (4.65 Mb).

Subscribe to OED Online, for a reasonable fee of £50 per quarter (3 months).

Concise Oxford Dictionary 10th Edition Considering its usefulness, it is remarkably small at only 5.70 Mb installed. Compare that to huge, useless, gigabyte-scale programs like Warcraft 3 or NFSU2… COD10 is so compact that it can probably be zipped and emailed. *wink*