أكبر قاموس انجليزي للمعاني المرادفة

Hello and Welcome to BBC Xtra English!

Today Vicky and Liliane talk about the world's biggest thesaurus!

A thesaurus is similar to a dictionary in that it is made up of thousands and thousands of words.

The difference is that a dictionary is used to find out the meaning of a word, while a thesaurus is used to find words that describe the meaning you want to express.

For example, you can use a dictionary to find out what the word "clothes" means.

A thesaurus will give you other words that also mean clothes, like apparel or costume.

This new thesaurus, published by Oxford University Press has over 600'000 words.

What makes it special is that it is a historical thesaurus and it includes obsolete meanings that go right back to the beginning of the English language - around 1500 years ago.

Professor Christian Kay of Glasgow University began the project when she was a 28 year old research student.

That was over 40 years ago and she is now almost seventy!

She told the BBC that the project went through many difficulties as they almost lost their work in a fire.

The project also had a lack of funds and needed a lot of support from people to keep going.

Now that it is complete, Professor Kay says that the thesaurus is invaluable to researchers and historians.

Why do you think a thesaurus is useful for people studying English? Do you use one? Write to us in English!

هل تعتقد ان هذه القواميس مفيدة لدارسي اللغة الإنجليزية، ولماذا؟ هل تستخدم مثل هذا القواميس؟ اكتب لنا بالإنجليزية

thesaurus
قاموس للمعاني المرادفة

similar
شبيه

dictionary
قاموس/ معجم

meaning
معنى

describe
يصف

historical
تاريخي

obsolete
مهجور

difficulties
صعوبات

lack of funds
نقص التمويل

invaluable
ثمين/ لا يقدر بثمن

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