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About Historical Thesaurus

  • The Historical Thesaurus groups senses and words in the OED according to their subject, and orders them by date of first use. It functions as a taxonomic index of language history.

  • Unlike a typical thesaurus it is not just for looking up synonyms – instead, it can be used to explore the different words used for a particular concept or meaning over time.

  • Start using the thesaurus by clicking on any of the headings on the left, or by searching for a word or heading using the search box. Words used for a particular concept or meaning are listed in date order.

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