The ideal guide to choosing the right words. - Goes beyond the word lists of a thesaurus - Entries explain important differences between synonyms - Provides over 17,000 usage examples - Lists antonyms and related words
This book is astounding and is unlike any dictionary or thesaurus I've ever been able to find (and man, I've *looked*). If we lived in a fair and just world we would be making undergrads buy this instead of Strunk and White.
It really isn't a thesaurus, but it's close: each entry takes a cluster of associated words and then dives into something like a mini-essay exploring the subtle differences of context and meaning. There's a half-page dedicated to the nuances that differentiate deceit, duplicity, dissimulation, cunning, and guile; another half page distinguishing between foam, froth, spume, scum, lather, and suds. For particularly wild evenings you can kick back and read the entire two-page entry under "part" ("... while 'detail' applies to a part chiefly when the presupposed whole is a plan or design, or represents the working out of a plan or design; in this sense ...").
It's just mind-blowing to me that this book is out of print. I have three copies just in case there's a string of dictionary-related tragedies. I would jump in front of a bullet for this book. I made a goodreads account just so that maybe, just maybe somebody else would be motivated to appreciate this thing.
Rural, rustic, pastoral or bucolic? Quality, property, character or attribute? Poverty, indigence, penury or destitution? What's the diff? Webster explains it all. My copy is especially useful to me because I have the searchable PDF. (Dear technology, I love you.) I'd be lazy to riffle through the printed version of this otherwise.