Everyone - from beginners in English to veteran journalists, knows the frustration of not having the right words at the right time. It is frustrating to read a newspaper or homework assignment and run across words whose meanings elude us. Language, after all, is power. Last December, while going through my mailbox, I came across this joke, which was being circulated on the Internet.

Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget?s Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing house last Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Witnesses were aghast, amazed, astonished, astounded, bemused, benumbed, bewildered, confounded, confused, dazed, dazzled, disconcerted, disoriented, dumbstruck, electrified, flabbergasted, horrified, immobilised, incredulous, nonplussed, overwhelmed, paralysed, perplexed, scared, shocked, startled, stunned, stupefied, surprised, taken aback, traumatised, upset?.

A thesaurus is like a dictionary except that it groups words within constellations of meaning. It is often useful in discovering just the right word you need to express what you want to say. Make sure you correctly understand the definition of a word (by using a dictionary) before using it in some important paper or report. When people use a word that puzzles you, ask what it means! Or else, if you are the shy type, write down the word and look it up later, before the context of the word evaporates.

Ashveen KUTOWAROO

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