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Why Should You Care About National Thesaurus Day?

  • Writer: alisonkilian
    alisonkilian
  • Jan 25, 2025
  • 2 min read

Updated: May 1, 2025

Our vocabularies are shrinking. National Thesaurus Day is a nice reminder to revisit lesser-used words.

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Media from Wix

๐ˆ'๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ž (๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ž, ๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐๐ฒ, ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐, ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐š๐ฒ๐ž๐!) ๐ข๐ง ๐š๐œ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ž๐๐ ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐“๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐š๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ƒ๐š๐ฒ ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐š๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ ๐š ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ง๐จ๐ง๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ.ย As someone who works with words, I often reach for a thesaurusโ€”and I can remember the times when that meant reaching for an actual book!ย 


๐…๐ฎ๐ง ๐Ÿ๐š๐œ๐ญ:ย  The first English thesaurus is credited to Peter Mark Roget, an English physician and philologist. From 1848 to 1852, he compiled approximately 15,000 words to create the first volume. (1)


๐๐จ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐จ ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ง ๐Ÿ๐š๐œ๐ญ: Research has suggested that adult vocabularies are declining. (2) Others have proposed that our vocabularies aren't declining but simply evolving, for instance with tech-related words gaining precedence over words relating to the natural world. (3)


Whatever the reality may be, National Thesaurus Day is a nice little reminder to dust off some of those lesser used synonyms instead of always using the same words over and over. I enjoy sneaking in the occasional ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ญ.


๐ƒ๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐š ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ง'๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐š๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ข๐จ๐ง?


(1) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Peter Mark Roget."ย https://lnkd.in/dnp94T4z

(2) Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell, and Ryne A. Sherman, "Declines in vocabulary among American adults within levels of educational attainment, 1974โ€“2016."ย https://lnkd.in/dcfQb8wW

(3) Kristen Page, The Wonders of Creation: Learning Stewardship from Narnia and Middle-Earth.ย https://lnkd.in/dXJ2APeY


Thank you for reading my blog! This is a space where I share personal thoughts โ€” an opportunity for self-expression that has nothing to do with my professional writing. None of the thoughts or opinions expressed in this blog should be construed as anything but my own, nor should they be affiliated with any company or person I contract with or write for as a ghostwriter.


NOW that that's done... I'd love to hear from you about this blog post in the comments!

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