http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/?utm_source=rss Copyright 2009, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/?utm_source=rss Search for a word in the Visual Thesaurus word http://www.visualthesaurus.com Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1842?utm_source=rss We're tremendously excited to present a new feature on the Visual Thesaurus website called VocabGrabber (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/), a tool that intelligently extracts words from any document you're interested in. All you need to do is copy a text and Vocabgrabber will instantly pull out the most useful vocabulary words and show you how those words are used in context. You can sort, filter, and save the lists, and also view Visual Thesaurus wordmaps and definitions. It's a boon for students, teachers, English language learners, or anyone who wants to bring some interactive fun to vocab learning. Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1842 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1782?utm_source=rss In the two years since we launched word lists (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/) on the Visual Thesaurus, subscribers have taken advantage of the feature to catalogue everything from economics vocabulary (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/7629) to skateboarding verbs (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/11611). Now it's easier than ever to organize your word lists and keep track of your favorite lists. Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1782 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1760?utm_source=rss We here at the Visual Thesaurus have a long-standing commitment to providing tools for teachers who want to get students excited about language. From our award-winning application to our high-quality lesson plans and other online content, we're constantly looking for ways to help educators enliven their classrooms. Now we're bringing all of those resources together on a redesigned educators page (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/educators/), together with some brand-new features. Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1760 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1588?utm_source=rss Since we launched the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/) this past summer, we've been delighted to see how much you've all been playing it. The numbers tell the tale: so far about 500,000 words have been spelled by about 15,000 players. All of that player data has allowed us to improve the Bee on a continuous basis: every five minutes, words are rescored for difficulty taking into account the latest results from spellers. We've made some additional changes to fit the Bee to different skill levels, in order it make it an even more challenging and educational experience for players of all ages and abilities. Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1588 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1440?utm_source=rss We're very pleased to announce a brand-new feature: the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/)! Taking advantage of our high-quality audio pronunciations (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1390/), we've created a quiz that will sharpen your spelling skills and expand your vocabulary. And as everyone here in the office can attest, the quiz is downright addictive. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1440 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1395?utm_source=rss 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. Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1395 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1390?utm_source=rss 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 (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=zabaglione) or blancmange (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=blancmange)? How about head-scratchers like phthisis (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=phthisis) or caoutchouc (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=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. Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1390 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1386?utm_source=rss 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 (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/) have been such a big hit that we're now giving every subscriber a profile page, which you can tailor as you like. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1386 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1384?utm_source=rss 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 (http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/). Ben also had a weekly column on the OUP blog called From A to Zimmer (http://blog.oup.com/category/reference/a_to_zimmer/) about words and usage. And if his name rings a bell, you're right! We published a fascinating interview (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/1323/) 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. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1384 Announcements http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1243?utm_source=rss 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... Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/announcements/1243