Enter a word, phrase, description, or pattern above to find synonyms, related words, and more.
Concept clusters in the subject Social systems (Top)
Academic institutions Academic positions and roles Academic study or achievement Administration Adult entertainment venues Adult or erotic magazines Advice or consultation Agriculture or farming American Civil War American Civil War (2) Anointing or applying oil Antique currency Antique currency (2) Antique currency (3) Archaic currencies Archaic leadership titles Architectural styles Armed forces personnel Arthurian Legend Aussie Anglo-Irish impact Authority and Jurisdiction Authority and Power Authority or control BDSM and sexual kink Baby or young child Bible Bitcoin Blood relation or kinship Brand identity and recognition Brothel Brotherhood or camaraderie Business and corporate law Business and entrepreneurship Camping Caravanning Caregiving Catholic Mass Catholic confession or penance Celebration or festival Celebrity couple nicknames Chapter Chief or head of a group Childhood or young age Christian festivities Christian liturgy Christmas Church Positions Circus performers and shows Citizenship and governance Citizenship or society Civil liberties Cohabiting Coin collecting Collaboration or joint effort Collaboration or partnership Colloquial terms for money Companionship Computing or digital data Constitutional Law Corporation Court and judicial system Court and judiciary system Court officials and roles Cradling or nurturing a child Cultural female roles Currency Currency or money Currency or money (2) DIY (Do It Yourself) Dating status Death rituals Delegation Delegation or representation Denominations or values Detective or investigation Different types of currencies Diplomatic and admin roles Diplomatic roles Diverse job sectors Dolly Domestic authority Domestic service Dominance Dominance and Submission Dwellings Earth Goddess or Mother Earth Education and schooling Education or academia Elderly or old age Elderly people or aging Emperor or sovereign ruler Employment or occupation Entertainment Entrepreneurship Espionage or spying Eucharist in Christianity Executive roles or positions Extreme wealth Faith or belief system Family relationships Fandom or fan obsession Fantasyland Farm or farming property Farmers or agriculturalists Father or dad Father or dad (2) Fatherhood Fatherhood or parenthood Feasting Feasting or partying Federal system of government Female leadership or authority Female leadership roles Female religious leaders Female roles or occupations Female roles or women's roles Female royalty or nobility Festivities Feudal titles/ranks Feudalism Feudalism (2) Feudalism or feudal lordship Fictional characters Filipino extended family Final judgment or apocalypse Followers or supporters Foreign currency Forensic science Fraternity Fraternity or brotherly bond Frequenting Freshman year Friend Frugality or stinginess Gang member Gangster or criminal lifestyle Gender and sexuality Gender-specific job roles Gender-specific job titles Gender-specific job titles (2) Gender-specific terminology Gender-specific terminology (2) Gendered language Geographical regions or areas Girl Scouting organizations Giving orders or instructions Global historical currencies God or a supreme deity Going on a trip Going to clubs Governance or leadership roles Governance or rule Government and legislation Government in various dialects Government officials and roles Governmental roles Grading or ranking Groundskeeping Group or gathering Guarding or defending Guidance or leading Healthcare Services Heroic Figures Holidays Holidays or breaks Home or domestic life Home or residence Homeland or native land Homemaker Honorific Titles Honour Hospital Hospitality Hostel or inn Housekeeping Housekeeping (2) Housing or residential spaces Identity Illegal trade or smuggling In charge or control Infantry soldier Inheritance and succession International Organizations Internet Trolling Jesus Christ Job titles Junior roles Jury and court proceedings Kinship Kinship (2) Knighthood and chivalry Labor unions Large group of people Large scale or grandness Law and legal profession Law and legal professions Lawmakers Leadership or authority Leadership or authority (2) Leadership roles in government Legal Authorities Legal Authority Legal decision or court ruling Legal decisions and rulings Legal profession or law Legal systems and legislation Legislation or law-making Legislation or lawmaking Legislature Letter grades Lobbying Location or place Lower in rank or status Luxury fashion brands Mafia or Mob Management Manipulation of information Manual or menial labor Marian devotion Masculine roles or personas Master or expert Mayor and other city officials Meeting places or venues Merchant or trader Military and soldiers Military hierarchy Military or tribal hierarchy Military ranks and positions Military units Military units or groups Minor or obsolete UK currency Monarchy or royalty Money slang Months Motherhood or being a mother Multi-level marketing Multidisciplinary honors Multiple dwelling units Nail sizes Neighborhood or neighbourhood Night or evening Nobility or monarchy Noble titles or ranks Numismatics Nuptial customs Office work Official authority Official capacities Official positions or titles Old or slang terms for money Opinion Organization or structure Organizational behavior Organizational leadership Otaku culture Outdoor play areas Parliamentary politics Parties Partner or spouse Partnership Patrilineal descent Patronage or sponsorship Peasant or rural farmer Pedigree Pets and pet care Pioneering Plazas Police and Law Enforcement Police officer Police officer (2) Political seating arrangements Political structure and roles Post-secondary education Post-secondary education (2) Power Presidential family roles Primaries specifically Prison or incarceration Prison or jail Prison or jail (2) Prisons or jails Professional women Professions Protection or supervision Protective Forces or Personnel Protest and civil disobedience Providing or selling food Public Administration Public Spaces Pulling an all-nighter Puppeteering Race and Racial Identity Racial or ethnic slurs Racial slurs Regions Registration or record keeping Relationships Religious devotion Residing Road warriors Rooms Rooms in a house Royalty Royalty or rulership Rules and Regulations Rural living Rural or uneducated person Sales roles and activities Salutations Scouting Seating or platforms Security or protection Servant or subordinate Servants Shelter or dwelling Shelter or refuge Single man or unmarried man Slang or colloquial terms Slang terms for money Slang terms for money (2) Slavery Slums Small Size or Being Small Small and old Small or young child Sociology Sovereignty or rulership Sovereignty or self-governance Spaces for creativity Special or Designated Seating Special or designated days Specific days within a week Specific group or community Specific months of the year Specific purpose rooms Spinster Spiritual and chosen kinship Squires and courtiers Standard workday Stores and shopping centers Strong or powerful women Subordinate positions Taking a break or time off Teacher Teamwork Territorial authority Theater venues and spaces Tourism Trade and selling Traditional judiciary Translation and Interpretation Traveler Travelers Types of Houses Tyranny and dictatorship UK government posts Units of weight Unity or togetherness Urbanization Using a third party Value or worth Various dolls Vigilance or surveillance Visiting or tourism Voting and elections Ward or guard Warfare strategies or tactics Watching over Wedding party roles Western history White supremacy Widowhood Women in different roles Women in male-dominated fields Women's empowerment Women's pop culture Women's traditional roles Work activities Work or labor (2) Worker or laborer Written Communication


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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