As part of our tireless mission to make the online content of the Visual Thesaurus more enjoyable and accessible, we're making some changes to the magazine's look this week. We're also introducing a lively new column tracking words on the move. Continue reading...

We're extremely proud to announce that the Visual Thesaurus now offers accurate, high-quality audio pronunciations for every single word in our database — all 150,000 of them! This was a mammoth undertaking, and the results are unequaled by any online resource, both in terms of quality and quantity. Want to know how to pronounce the names of delicacies like zabaglione or blancmange? How about head-scratchers like phthisis or caoutchouc? In the Visual Thesaurus application, just click on the speaker icon next to the word or phrase you've selected. Or you can right-click on any word shown in the map and select "Pronounce Word" from the pull-down menu. The default setting is for American English, but if you prefer to hear British English pronunciations, you can easily change your audio preference in the application's Advanced Settings.

Let's take a step behind the curtain to see who was responsible for creating these pronunciations. The ensemble cast may surprise you.

Continue reading...

Greetings from new editor Ben Zimmer. You may have noticed some changes around here recently. We've been working to make the Visual Thesaurus a comfier, more personalized experience. The customized word lists have been such a big hit that we're now giving every subscriber a profile page, which you can tailor as you like. Continue reading...

Hello Visual Thesaurus subscribers: I'm pleased to announce we have appointed a new editor! His name is Ben Zimmer, and he comes to us from Oxford University Press, where he was editor for American dictionaries. Ben's very accomplished background is in linguistics and lexicography, and he blogs regularly at the respected Language Log. Ben also had a weekly column on the OUP blog called From A to Zimmer about words and usage. And if his name rings a bell, you're right! We published a fascinating interview with Ben last month about his work at OUP. We're extremely excited that Ben has joined our team. You'll see lots of new features and articles in the coming weeks, plus Ben will be working closely with the Visual Thesaurus team to continue developing our award-winning software. Continue reading...

We're proud to announce the redesign of the Visual Thesaurus web site. Starting this week, you'll see new and exciting improvements to the Visual Thesaurus Online. What's new? We've added auto-complete so you can look up words faster. We've introduced brand-new, high-quality audio pronunciations. We've made the Visual Thesaurus magazine easier to read and navigate. And much, much more... Continue reading...

Educators: Want fresh ideas for teaching with the Visual Thesaurus? Check out our customized lesson plans! Every month we publish a new lesson plan for elementary to high school classes. They're fun, captivating, imaginative -- and highly effective. Your students will love 'em! Please check out lesson plans by clicking here.

How can you start your morning without the latest Visual Thesaurus Word of the Day delivered directly to your email in-box? We thought you couldn't. Subscribe to the Word of the Day and we'll send you a fun and fascinating new entry. Every morning. Automatically. Please click here to subscribe.