Enter a word, phrase, description, or pattern above to find synonyms, related words, and more.
Concept clusters in the subject Communication (Top)
AI and robotics Abbreviation Academic citation Acoustics (2) Acronyms and word play After an event or process Alphabet systems Analysis Analytical approaches Analyzing social dynamics Anatomy of the human voice Ancient or old-fashioned Ancient wedding songs or hymns And their meanings Anthology Architecture Art and artistic expression Authorship or being a writer Autonomy or self-governance Autumn or Seasons Axiom Before or prior to Behavioral psychology Behavioural science Biocomplexity Biography Book collecting Bookish Brackets Breaking down a larger entity Calendar Carving or engraving on stones Change or transition (2) Changing or varying form Character Encoding Characterization Classical studies Classifying information Code-switching Combinatorics Communication medium Comprehension Condensed storytelling Condensing or shortening Creative writing Cultural psychology Dawn Days and weeks Death or after death Deception or misdirection Definition Delineating Denotation or designation Derivation Descent or decline Diacritics Dialogue Diurnal cycle Divination or fortune-telling Division or Organization Documentary filmmaking Documenting Drama and narrative creation Dramaturgy Duality or couple Duality or duplication Dynamics or dynamic forces ESP (Extrasensory Perception) Early morning Encyclopedia Ether or the ethereal Ethnicity Ethnicity or ethnic heritage Experimental poetry Extensive Extrasensory perception Falsehood or imitation Fictional genres Figure Figures of Speech Gender neutrality or androgyny Generational cohorts GeoTech Global reach Grammar and linguistics Greek alphabet and symbols Handwriting or script styles Harmony and melody Having multiple aspects (2) Having multiple forms (2) Hearing or producing sound Historical study IT Architecture Structure Ideas or ideation Imagination or fantasy Imagining Industry and production Inter and intra which refer to between and within groups Interdisciplinary Interdisciplinary studies Interpretation Introduction or preamble Language and linguistics Language diversity Linguistic analysis Linguistic analysis (2) Linguistic change Linguistic change (2) Linguistic expression Linguistic nuances Linguistics Linguistics (2) Linguistics (3) Linguistics (4) Linguistics (5) Linguistics (6) Linguistics and Grammar Linguistics and language study Linguistics and phonetics Literary critique Literary devices Literature studies Localization Logic and reasoning Logical fallacies Long narrative poem Matter or material Measurement and transformation Media and communication Mental health therapies Meta Metafiction Metaphysics and epistemology Middle or midpoint Moderation or balance Morphology (2) Morphology and affixation Morphology and etymology Morphology and lexicology Morphology and phonology Multiculturalism Multifaceted analysis Multilingualism Multiple cultures co-existing Multiplicity or Variety Multiverse Multiverse (2) Museums and museum studies Musical rhythm Mysticism Mythology Naming or labeling Narratology Numbering or counting Obscenity Occult symbolism Occultism Oneirology Onomastics Onomatopoeia (3) Oratory or speechmaking Organization Organizing or sorting items Orientation or positioning Pairing or duplication Palm reading or palmistry Paradise Paradoxes Pattern Perception distortion Phenomenology Philosophy and psychology Phonetic pronunciation Phonetics and Phonology Phonetics and Phonology (2) Phonetics and phonology Phonetics and phonology (3) Phonetics and phonology (4) Picture or Portrait Plagiarism Poetic expression Poetry and poetic forms Poetry and poetic meter Polyphony Population Positioning Post-event or post-occurrence Post-event/action Pre-articulation phonetics Preceding Preparation or prior action Pretense or imitation Prophecy Prophesying Pseudonym Psychic Abilities Psychology Psychology (2) Psychology (3) Quotes and punctuation Quoting or citation Referencing Resonance or acoustic quality Rhetoric and communication Rhetoric and linguistic style Rhyme schemes and patterns Roundness or circularity Runes and runic inscriptions SLT or SLD Science Second or being second Segmentation Self-assembly or co-assembly Semantics Semiotics Signs and symbols Sonnet and sonneteers Sound or voice Sound or voice production Speaking Specialized names Speech and language disorders Speech or verbal expression Spoken narrative or discourse Statistics (2) Storytelling Strategy and tactics Subcategory Subdivision Subdivision or subcategory Subdivision or subcategory (2) Subliminal Subordination Summer or seasons Supernatural Syllable Symbolism Synonyms (7) Tech-savvy individuals Technology Technology (2) Terminology Text and textual analysis Theology (2) Theology (6) Theoretical interpretation Time division in sports games Time measurement or periods Tone in music and speech Translation and interpreting Tribute Tropical or tropics Twins or twinning Typography Using a name that a person Ventriloquism Verb inflection Verbal expression Verse meter Visual and performing arts Visual arts and design Visual perception Vocabulary Vocabulary measurement Voice or vocal expression Word creation and naming Worldbuilding Worldview Writing (2) Writing systems Year


This subject index is an experimental OneLook feature. We've grouped words and phrases into thousands of clusters based on a statistical analysis of how they are used in writing. Some of the words and concepts may be vulgar or offensive. The names of the clusters were written automatically and may not precisely describe every word within them.

How do I use OneLook's thesaurus / reverse dictionary?

OneLook helps you find words for any type of writing. Similar to a traditional thesaurus, it find synonyms and antonyms, but it offers much greater depth and flexibility. Simply enter a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence to describe what you need. Press Enter or choose from the autocomplete suggestions to explore related words. You can sort, filter, and explore the words that come back in a variety of creative ways. Here's a video which goes over some of the basics.

What are some examples?

Task
Example searches
🔆 Find a word by describing it barrel maker
before the flood
museum guide
search for food
urge to travel
what a milliner makes
tried twice for the same crime
when cancer spreads through the body
🔆 Explore synonyms and related concepts fancy
baseball
clouds
twisty
push
industrial revolution
🔆 Get a list of words in some category ("type of...") type of bird of prey
type of soft cheese
type of light bulb
🔆 Find more words similar to some examples (comma-separated list) squishy,spongy,gooey
bicycle,motorcycle,scooter
ice cream,pie,cookies
🔆 Answer basic identification questions capital of Vietnam
longest river in the world
original host of Jeopardy
🔆 Solve crossword puzzle clues, or find words if you only know some of the letters.
(Use pattern:description syntax) 		??lon:synthetic fabric
s?nt?:christmas
l*ch*:fruit
??????:hit
c*:board game

Exploring the results

Click on any result to see definitions and usage examples tailored to your search, as well as links to follow-up searches and additional usage information when available. OneLook knows about more than 2 million different words and expressions covering every topic under the sun. Try exploring a favorite topic for a while and you'll be surprised how much new stuff there is to learn!

Ordering the results

Your results will initially appear with the most closely related word shown first, the second-most closely shown second, and so on. You can re-order the results in a variety of different ways, including alphabetically, by length, by popularity, by modernness, by formality, and by other aspects of style. Click the box that says "Closest meaning first..." to see them all. (Here's a short video about sorting and filtering with OneLook Thesaurus.)

Filtering the results

You can refine your search by clicking on the "Advanced filters" button on the results page. This lets you narrow down your results to match a certain starting letter, number of letters, number of syllables, related concept, meter, vowel sound, or number of syllables. Read more details on filters if you're interested in how they work.

I'm only looking for synonyms! What's with all of these weird results?

For some kinds of searches only the first result or the first few results are truly synonyms or good substitutions for your search word. We highlight these results in yellow. Beyond that, the results are meant to inspire you to consider similar words and adjacent concepts. Not all of the results will make sense at first, but they're all connected with your search in some way. We'd rather give you too many options than too few. If you're unsure of a word, we urge you to click on it to check its definitions and usage examples before using it in your Oscars acceptance speech or honors thesis.

What are letter patterns?

If you know some letters in the word you're looking for, you can enter a pattern instead of, or in addition to, a description. Here are how patterns work:
  • The asterisk (*) matches any number of letters. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for any part of a word or phrase. For example, if you enter blueb* you'll get all the terms that start with "blueb"; if you enter *bird you'll get all the terms that end with "bird"; if you enter *lueb* you'll get all the terms that contain the sequence "lueb", and so forth. An asterisk can match zero letters, too.

  • The question mark (?) matches exactly one letter. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for a single letter or symbol. The query l?b?n?n,  for example, will find the word "Lebanon".

  • The number-sign (#) matches any English consonant. For example, the query tra#t finds the word "tract" but not "trait".

  • The at-sign (@) matches any English vowel (including "y"). For example, the query abo@t finds the word "about" but not "abort".

  • NEW! The comma (,) lets you combine multiple patterns into one. For example, the query ?????,*y* finds 5-letter words that contain a "y" somewhere, such as "happy" and "rhyme".

  • NEW! Use double-slashes (//) before a group of letters to unscramble them (that is, find anagrams.) For example, the query //soulbeat will find "absolute" and "bales out", and re//teeprsn will find "represent" and "repenters". You can use another double-slash to end the group and put letters you're sure of to the right of it. For example, the query //blabrcs//e will find "scrabble". Question marks can signify unknown letters as usual; for example, //we??? returns 5-letter words that contain a W and an E, such as "water" and "awake".

  • NEW! A minus sign (-) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "exclude these letters". For example, the query sp???-ei finds 5-letter words that start with "sp" but do not contain an "e"or an "i", such as "spoon" and "spray".

  • NEW! A plus sign (+) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "restrict to these letters". For example, the query *+ban finds "banana".

  • On OneLook's main search or directly on OneLook Thesaurus, you can combine patterns and thesaurus lookups by putting a colon (:) after a pattern and then typing a description of the word, as in ??lon:synthetic fabric and the other examples above.

Other ways to access this service:

Is this available in any language other than English?

The same interface is now available in Spanish at OneLook Tesauro as a beta version. More languages are coming!

How does it work?

We use a souped-up version of our own Datamuse API, which in turn uses several lingustic resources described in the "Data sources" section on that page. The definitions come from Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and WordNet. Here are some known problems with the current system.
Much gratitude to Gultchin et al for the algorithm behind the "Most funny-sounding" sort order.

Profanity and problematic word associations

If you're using this site with children, be forewarned you'll occasionally find profanity and other vulgar expressions. (The site aims to show you how words have been used in the language, including good ones and bad ones. Removing hurtful words would be a disservice to everyone!)

Some of the thesaurus results come from a statistical analysis of the words in a large collection of books written in the past two centuries. A handful of times we've found that this analysis can lead us to suggest word associations that reflect racist or harmful stereotypes present in this source material. If you see one of these, please know that we do not endorse what the word association might imply. In egregious cases we will remove it from the site if you report it to us via the feedback link below.

Privacy

No personally identifying information is ever collected on this site or by any add-ons or apps associated with OneLook. OneLook Thesaurus sends your search query securely to the Datamuse API, which keeps a log file of the queries made to the service in the last 24 hours. The log file is deleted after 24 hours and we do not retain any long-term information about your IP address or invididual queries.

Who's behind this site and where can I send my comments and complaints feedback?

OneLook is a service of Datamuse. You can send us feedback here.

The sunburst logo (🔆) is the emoji symbol for "high brightness", which we aspire to create with OneLook. (The graphic came from the open-source Twemoji project.)



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