Rating: 
Summary: Not Easiest To Use, but Helpful in Expository Writing.
Review: "Roget's International Thesaurus" is organized by subject as opposed to alphabetically, although all words are also indexed in the back. Which type of organization you prefer will depend upon your needs and tastes. If you are looking for a thesaurus that will simply give you the most and best alternative words, an alphabetical thesaurus such as Rodale Press' "Synonym Finder" is easier to use and more efficient to that purpose. On the other hand, "Roget's International Thesaurus" has traded ease of use for versatility. If it's a synonym you seek, look it up in the index, which will direct you to the appropriate section and subsection. There, you will find synonyms for your word, and if you let your eyes wander up and down the page perusing the contents of that section, you will also find words related to your subject, including antonyms. The part of speech for each word is always given, and abbreviations for "nonformal" and the origins of foreign words are provided for clarity. There are no word definitions. Section/subsection numbers are conveniently found at the top of each page to aid in locating words. If you have no idea what word you need, you can consult the list of 1,075 categories in the front of the book, which will direct you to words related to that subject. Word lists are another of the book's useful features. If you are looking at the subject of lakes, for example, you are provided with a list of the world's major lakes. Other examples include a list of words describing different types of engraving found in the graphic arts section, and over 100 types of ceramic are listed in the ceramics section. A short biography of Peter Mark Roget, the 19th century physician whose work was the basis for all subsequent thesauruses organized by subject, introduces you to the book, followed by a short explanation of how to best make use of this thesaurus. I think that most students will prefer an alphabetical thesaurus to this one. But if you do a lot of expository writing, Roget's organization by subject could prove invaluable. Since I do a lot of writing and have somehow deluded myself into viewing shelf space as endlessly expandable, I have found that having both "Roget's International Thesaurus" and "The Synonym Finder" is the best way to go.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is hot!
Review: ... Roget's Indexed Thesaurus is absolutely invaluable for students, writers, writers who are also students, pupils, scholars, educatees, trainees, tutees, disciples, collegians, and hundreds more! And you can just forget about an alphabetical thesaurus. Yes, it might be "easier," but you'll be sacficing thousands of words (not to mention a quick and easy way to peruse subtle variations of words) or adding few pounds to the book (and this is no beach paperback). So do yourself a favor and get the greatest thesaurus that ever was, and let the phraseology begin!
Rating:
Summary: Ok - but don't toss your Third Ed!
Review: After getting many years of excellent service from the 3rd Edition (bought new for $$$) I decided to 'upgraged' to 6th Edition. For the most part a great tool and highly recommended. Especially if you are new to a good thesaurus. HOWEVER - every silver lining has its cloud!The paper used for the pages appears to be a high grade newsprint. Probably is a bit better than that, but after the brilliant white, sensually-thin paper of the 3rd Edition, a bit of a dissapointment. The word lists: A real dissapointment! In the 3rd Edition index there were special entries when a pertinent word-list existed. Under COAL, there would be an entry "Types of ~ 330.10". Sadly this handy feature has been left out of the 6th Edition - you have to stumble across the word lists by luck.
So my 3rd Ed. will remain a backup. I wasn't sure what to do with it anyway...
Rating:
Summary: Forget an alphabetically organized thesaurus
Review: Although one's search begins with an alphabetized listing, the main body of this thesaurus (its original concept) is organized by category. This means that to find a synonym for e.g., "trouble", you will not simply be presented a list all the possible meanings of the word but you can choose your search depending upon the sense you are looking for. If you mean "annoyance" you will be sent one place for synonyms (nouns, verbs, adj, adv); if your meaning is more "presume upon" you will be sent somewhere else. In the case of "trouble" there are about a dozen places to go in the thesaurus depending upon the subtlety of meaning you are looking for. If you are a writer, this reference work is a sine qua non. Look no further than here for the best thesaurus in the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor organization of categories
Review: An idea-indexed thesaurus is the most fascinating and useful word tool I know. The alphabetical organization is useful too, but I find it more efficient to use the computer for that kind of search (e.g. the Roget-based 'synonyms' in MS Bookshelf). Since I'm more often looking for neighboring ideas than for synonyms, the organization of the category list is critical. Unfortunately, that is where the recent editions (5th and 6th) have badly botched things. Roget's original categorization was simple and conceptually clear - the high level groupings were very general (abtract relations, space, intellect, emotions, etc.) and fit well together. The clean, hierarchical organization was easy to navigate and worth contemplating in its own right - clearly the product of a very powerful mind.
This architecture was improved on in the subsequent editions, up to the 4th. But the 5th edition, instead of just modernizing the vocabulary, introduced a poorly thought out scheme (also used by the 6th) where, e.g., something as general as 'natural phenomena' is on the same level as 'sports and amusements', and most of the abstract concepts are thrown together into a single huge category, 'The Mind and Ideas'...
Many people won't care about this at all, but if you spend a lot of time with the category list, you may end up annoyed enough to go back to the 4th edition, which is what I did.
Rating:
Summary: Best Investment a Writer Could Make
Review: As others have already stated, with this thesaurus you can find the word you're looking for simply by looking under the concept. For instance, say you're writing a piece and at that particular moment you can't think of the best word so you write "clear cut" just to get the idea onto the page. Later, when you're editing your piece, you see "clear cut" and still your mental thesaurus fails you. So, you take this book, look up "clear cut" (which is in there) and sure enough, it points you to a series or related concepts and synonyms. *Wonderful* is all I can say. When one can write in a rough draft "set straight" and look up those words in a thesaurus and find a fitting replacement, all that can be said is ... this writer's tool deserves the highest praise.
Rating:
Summary: Now I can say [...] instead of [...]!
Review: Back in the days before Amazon introduced their handy-dandy instant-review-posting feature, this bad-boy was a very handy tool in my constant battle to get my product reviews past those pesky Amazon editors in a reasonably unmolested state, and posted on the site for all to see. You see, sometimes an editor would cut a seemingly innocuous word or phrase out of one of my reviews, and then either replaced it with an inadequate substitute word/phrase, or nothing at all. For example, the word [...] seemed to bother a few of Amazon's cagier scrutineers. I tried to use the word in a couple of my reviews, but it had gotten cut out both times. Not satisfied with a set of ellipses where [...] used to be, I'd whip out the thesaurus to find a suitable substitute. Let's see now... hmmm... it's an adjective... first synonym is [...]. Nope, that's not the one I'm lookin' for. [...] close, but not quite. [...] nope. Finally, I came to [...], and found me a winner! Possessing the proper substitute that I hoped would squeak my write-up by Amazon's scrutineers, I'd resubmit the review with [...] in the places where [...] used to be, and a few days later it would show up on the site in its (almost) original state! Unfortunately, this thesaurus isn't always a big help where slang terms are concerned. Well, except for those delightfully obscene words of the four-letter kind, but that's another story altogether. For example, in one review I stated that a certain product "kinda [...]" (and yes, I elaborated on why it did indeed [...]). When the review posted, the word [...] was replaced with "was [...]", which I considered an inadequate substitute. Unfortunately, the thesaurus was not all that helpful with vernacular synonyms for the word "[...]". But I did take a look at similar listings for [...], and found what I was looking for with [...]. I redid the review by saying the item "was kinda [...]", and it went through without a hitch. As for this book's format: at first, I wasn't too hot about how the words and their synonyms/antonyms were arranged. The primary arrangement is by subject (classified into such groups as `Feelings/Emotions', `Measurement', and the like, then further refined into various sub-groups), rather than the usual alpha order. At first, I considered this so-called `improvement' more of a hindrance than a convenience. But after dropping my `I-don't-need-to-ask-for-no-stinking-directions" façade of machismo, and taking a look at the `How To Use This Book' section at the very front following the Introduction, I found this once-bewildering format surprisingly convenient! Sometimes it helps to read the instruction manual, you know? `Late
Rating:
Summary: Not just a synonym dictionary
Review: If you just need a different word that is easier to spell or say, a dictionary of synonyms will usually suffice. And that is all that an alphabetically organized thesaurus is. Their advantage is that you only have to do one lookup in the book instead of two, making them quicker and easier. A true thesaurus requires that you look the word up in an index to find a numeric index, then look up that numeric index in the body of the book to get a choice of synonyms. But the true thesaurus will give you a better supply of answers. First, the numeric entries either preceding or following frequently are opposing concepts. That means that if you go forward or backward two entries, you may strike on a subtle change in meanings that fits your intent much better. This had happened to me several times when I couldn't quite get the right word. It was because I didn't quite have the right meaning. Second, because all of the 'answers' are printed once, there is room for more of them. In a simple example, assume 5 words are considered synonyms. For a dictionary of synonyms, that means 5 entries listing 5 words each (the entry and its four synonyms), for 25 words. A true thesaurus lists an entry number in the main body with 5 words, and 5 entries of one-word-one-number in the index. Counting each number as a word, that is 16 words. That I can add 3 more synonyms (3 words in the entry in the body, 3 word-number pairs in the index) in the same amount of space. For larger groupings of words, the difference is much more significant. So now I get 7 choices (8 less the original word) instead of 4 (5 less the original word). Mark Twain claimed that the difference between a good word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Lightning strikes more often with a true thesaurus than a dictionary of synonyms.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive
Review: Really has everything you need in a Thesaurus and more...I have used this book many times. This really has everything you need, I have used it while writing my resume and letter's to employers. This book has helped me on ALL of my technical essay's at college. When you have a 2500 word essay - YOU NEED THIS BOOK!!!
Rating:
Summary: For those who prefer alphabetical organization...
Review: Some of these reviews seem to dislike the new organization of this edition. In case you believe you may be one of the same opinion I thought that I'd offer to you that Roget's is published in an A to Z format for your pleasure.
Roget A to Z
by Robert L. Chapman
For those who prefer a thesaurus in dictionary form, this bestseller (more than 50,000 hardcover copies sold) is the ideal choice.
Imprint: HarperResource; ISBN: 0062720597; Pages: 768; $13.95; $20.95(CAN)
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