A book of synonyms, often including related and contrasting words and antonyms

GA thesaurus helps you avoid repetition in your writing and helps you find a word for an idea you have in mind. You can use it to increase your vocabulary as the typical thesaurus has synonyms for more than 100,000 words.
Steps
et to know the features of your thesaurus. By understanding the parts of the entries and any changes in typography, you will grasp the nuances of the reference book's text. Thesauri may also contain antonyms, wordlists, and other interesting features.
Choose synonyms carefully. You will soon recognize that few words are exactly interchangeable. Use the thesaurus in conjunction with a good dictionary whenever selecting a word or phrase unfamiliar to you.
Each headword in the A-to-Z listing of Thesaurus.com is offered with its part of speech. Concise definitions accompany the headwords, supplying users with a basic reference point and helping them to evaluate synonym choices. The Thesaurus.com thesaurus has separate entries for different parts of speech and for different "meaning cores" for a word. Therefore, an entry word represents one meaning and a group of words considered synonymous with it in that sense. The synonyms may have other meanings as well, but they have at least one meaning in common with the entry word and the other synonyms in the list. The definition that comes before the synonym list tells you what meaning is shared by the words in the list.
The numbers that appear in superscript after the part of speech serve to distinguish the different meanings of a word. On Thesaurus.com, words with multiple meanings are sorted by frequency of use, with more common meanings appearing before less common meanings. In the example below, abandoned with the sense "deserted" is more common than abandoned with the sense of "bad."
For a print thesaurus, read the introduction. There are two main kinds of thesaurus: a Roget-type with a categorization system and an A-to-Z thesaurus. Become familiar with the categorization scheme if you have a Roget-type thesaurus. In an A-to-Z thesaurus, you may also benefit from definitions at each entry. Look up a word in a Roget-type thesaurus in the index. The index will likely have the meanings listed under each word. Don't limit your search to one category; also look at the categories just before and after the one you first look up. Examine the offerings in all parts of speech in the category of interest. You might find something you can use by broadening your search.
Tips
Use the thesaurus to avoid repeating words within a sentence and avoid beginning successive sentences or paragraphs with identical words.
A thesaurus groups words that are similar in meaning. Usually, you reach for a thesaurus when you have a word in mind and you are looking for a word that is like it (synonym) or one that means the opposite (antonym).
Remember that no two words mean exactly the same thing. No two words are directly interchangeable. It is the subtle nuance and flavor of particular words that give the English language its rich and varied texture. We turn to a thesaurus to find different, more expressive ways of speaking and writing, but we must turn to a dictionary, a sophisticated semantic tool, to determine meaning. Always consider synonyms in their desired context and consult a dictionary if you have any doubt about the application of a word or phrase. In order to make an informed selection from words clustered under a thesaurus concept, you should check the word in a dictionary and be sure to substitute the synonym in an example sentence to see if it sounds right and conveys the desired meaning.
An entry may also list antonyms, words that are in direct contrast with the entry word and synonym group. There may also be "contrasted words" that are almost opposite the entry word, but not quite. These words may be stronger or weaker in meaning and may not mean the exact opposite of the entry word. You can see that the help of a dictionary is important when you are looking up antonyms, too.
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Factors contributing to readers' interest. Another important educational issue is to increase the amount of interesting reading that students engage in. The bulk of the research in this area examined text characteristics that contribute to making reading materials more interesting. In his seminal 1979 paper, Roger Schank indicated that certain concepts (e.g., death, violence, and sex) can be considered "absolute interests" that almost universally elicit individuals' interest. In 1980 Walter Kintsch, referring to these interests as "emotional interests," distinguished them from cognitive interests, which result from events that are involved in complex cognitive structures or contain surprise. Subsequent research has suggested that a variety of text characteristics contribute in a positive way to the interestingness and memorability of written materials. Features that were found to be sources of situational interest include novelty, surprising information, intensity, visual imagery, ease of comprehension, text cohesion, and prior knowledge.
Text-based interest can also be promoted by altering certain aspects of the learning environment such as modifying task presentations, curriculum materials, and individuals' self-regulation. For example, in 1994 Gregg Schraw and R. S. Dennison were able to change the interestingness and recall of text materials by assigning for reading various perspectives on the same topic. In addition, research has indicated that presenting educational materials in more meaningful, challenging, and/or personally relevant contexts can stimulate interest. Modifying the presence of others in the learning environment can also elicit interest. For example, German researchers Lore Hoffman and P. Haussler demonstrated that mono-educational classes in physics can contribute to girls' increased interest in the subject area. Finally, Carol Sansone and colleagues in a series of studies showed that individuals can self-regulate in order to make tasks more interesting and subsequently to develop individual interest in activities initially considered uninteresting. Although these studies did not deal specifically with interest in reading, they indicated that interest in reading could also be increased by similar methods.
Conclusion
This study aimed to realize the effects of rewards in extensive reading activities. Itidentified the relevant reward variables found in controlled experimental situations andexplored their effects on reading motivation. The results showed that the reward processcould explain the variances of intrinsic, extrinsic, and global reading motivation, even whenincluding the effects of previous motivation.It also found that not every reward variable could predict the reading motivation.From a longitudinal perspective, the reward type and the reward attribution are two keyprocesses. Not only did they predict the extrinsic reading motivation, but they also predictedthe intrinsic reading motivation. The intangible reward and effort attribution increase bothpupils’ intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation positively; however, the luck attribution wasdisadvantageous to their intrinsic reading motivation. Against our expectations, tworelevant reward variables found in previous studies, namely the reward contingency and theexpectancy of rewards, could not predict any kind of reading motivation.Based on these results, we recommended that teachers and parents use rewardsjudiciously in attempting to motivate pupils to read. To be effective, rewards should beintangible rather than tangible. We also suggested that teachers and parents be aware of theattributions pupils make for receiving rewards. While it seems to go without saying,rewards should be attributed more to effort than to luck.Some reward variables found relevant in previous studies had no effect on readingmotivation in our study. This inconsistency might be attributed to the difference between anexperiment that is tightly controlled, and an study conducted in a school setting where pupilsare provided with more than one kind of reward and contingency. As it might be expected, theeffects of rewards on reading motivation are more complex in a realistic setting. Since therewas no comparable empirical evidence to the study we conducted, we concluded that anyinconsistency with previous studies should be regarded as tentative and indicative of the needfor further study.

What exactly is a thesaurus?
A thesaurus is a collection of synonyms (words which have basically the same meaning) and antonyms (words which have basically opposite meanings).

A thesaurus comes in one of two easy to use forms.
In dictionary form, words are in alphabetical order, so you look "very" up under V.
In index form, words are classified by meaning, and you would have to look up "very" in the index at the back of the book. The index would guide you to the page or pages where "very" appears.

Once you have the word before you, you must decide which synonym to use.
Words have different connotations--that is, different implied meanings--and if you use a word you're not familiar with, you may be saying something that you didn't intend to say. A basic rule to remember is that if you don't know the word, don't use it!!
Consider the words "slender" and "skinny." Both words are found under the heading thin in the thesaurus, but "slender" has positive connotations, while "skinny" does not. If you write
"The slender man walked down the street." and "The skinny man walked down the street." your mind sees two different images, even though the words are similar.
A thesaurus is a valuable tool, if used correctly. Stick to words you are familiar with, and remember that a longer word is only that--longer, not necessarily better.