electricity n
adj running, static, solar, cheap, renewable, reliable, retail, wind-generated noun water, price, gas, power, percent., cost, fuel, generation, market, energy verb generate, produce, provide, sell, convert., restore, .flow 10896 | 0.90
diverse j
noun group, student, population, community, background, culture, need, school, society, country, interest, sample misc more, as, culturally, most, ethnically, such, among, cultural
10953 | 0.89 A
advanced j
noun technology, system, degree, study, student, research, placement, course, program, class, country, age misc more, most, technologically, such, develop, industrial, international, require
10766 | 0.91 A
free v
noun slave, hostage, prisoner, .mind, .prison, .fund, soldier, .bail, capital, task, .bond, soul, .shackle, ·foreigner misc .from, .himself, last, set., .themselves, ·herself, struggle., .itself, finally.
up .money, .more, .space, .time, .resource, .fund, ·cash, .capital, .dollar, .land 10074 | 0.97
faster r
·than, much., move., grow., time., run., even., little., walk., far, lot., rise., heart., beat.
10388 | 0.94 M
conservative n
adj Christian, fiscal, black, political, compassionate, economic, strong, southern, staunch, mainstream noun liberal, Republican, party, .tank, lot., issue, moderate, Congress, movement, voter verb .believe, win, support, .oppose, .argue, vote, .agree, criticize, attack, appeal. 10826 | 0.90 S
online j
noun service, course, site, discussion, company, information, group, resource, magazine, business, music, community misc available, offer, such, provide, free, visit, commercial
10845 | 0.90 M
assault n
adj sexual, aggravated, physical, deadly, frontal, amphibious, military, final noun .weapon, .rifle, charge, ban, robbery, rape, victim, air., .battery, murder verb launch., report, lead., convict., aggravate., .occur
10297 | 0.95
23. Frequency of synonyms
One of the challenges for language learners is knowing how to use synonyms. A typical thesaurus will list several synonyms for a word, but it doesn't give any indication of which are more common, or in which genres they are used (including formal / informal). With the Corpus of Contemporary American English, however, this is quite easy.
For example, the following table is the output from the simple, one-word query [=strong] in the web interface. This table shows the frequency of each synonym of strong in the five main genres of the corpus, as well as the overall frequency for each word. Note that on the web, one would see all 53 synonyms, and that in the web interface they are color-coded for normalized frequency (frequency per million words), so it is very easy to compare the frequency across genres.
Synonym
Total
Spok
Fic
Mag
News
Acad
8
effective
34579
4277
814
7641
4172
17675
9
powerful
32042
5339
3688
8736
5905
8374
13
sharp
16000
1184
6154
3978
2700
1984
14
intense
13864
2042
2060
3842
2910
3010
18
compelling
5782
1006
360
1463
1114
1839
20
fierce
4870
571
1567
1118
1084
530
21
passionate
4290
847
763
1172
939
569
23
convincing
3882
730
565
862
697
1028
26
robust
3010
305
243
768
645
1049
28
sturdy
2695
97
742
1314
382
160
29
muscular
2685
164
955
709
359
498
30
spicy
2171
154
283
872
838
24
32
biting
2027
213
899
486
318
111
34
persuasive
1839
296
181
369
264
729
36
stout
1336
57
514
468
207
90
38
ardent
1191
93
173
354
311
260
40
pungent
845
18
325
260
205
37
41
burly
832
13
427
217
162
13
42
staunch
829
164
89
176
231
169
44
fervent
697
57
139
185
169
147
47
beefy
482
9
201
183
89
0
48
deep-seated
420
48
10
96
79
187
49
stalwart
395
19
82
135
125
34
50
strapping
346
32
145
96
67
6
51
brawny
247
10
96
95
41
5
Finally, note that in the web interface it is also possible—with just 2-3 clicks of the mouse—to directly query to see which synonyms occur much more in one genre than in another. For example, by comparing the synonyms of strong in Fiction and Academic, one sees that Fiction prefers beefy, burly, strapping, spicy, brawny, pungent, and biting. Academic, on the other hand, prefers effective, deep-seated, compelling, clear-cut, durable, robust, and persuasive.
shortly r
.after, .before, .thereafter, die, begin, .afterward, leave, arrive, .death, return, .midnight
10083 | 0.97
finance n
adj personal, international, public, corporate, global, shaky, external, behavioral noun campaign., .reform, .committee, .minister, ministry, chairman, company, .law, family., director verb help., manage., handle., pass, investigate. 10502 | 0.93 N
originally r
.plan, .design, .intend, .develop, .publish, .write, .build, .schedule, .propose, .conceive, .present, .appear
10189 | 0.96
founder n
adj American, chief, original, legendary, charismatic, retired, visionary, firm noun president, company, .director, CEO, chairman, .executive, .editor, coalition verb .intend, name., envision, honor., regard., .anticipate, embody 10653 | 0.91 M
lie n
adj big, white, outright, future, total, absolute, casual, bald-faced, obvious, secret noun .detector, .test, truth, sex., kind., pack. verb tell, believe, live., catch., pass., cover, expose, spread, repeat, detect