Enter a word, phrase, description, or pattern above to find synonyms, related words, and more.
Concept clusters in the subject Tools (Top)
Affixing Agricultural machinery Aiming a firearm at a target Analog drugs Ancient Greek athletics Animal-like characteristics Applying pressure Archaeological excavation Architectural elements Architectural elements (2) Architectural elements (3) Architectural elements (4) Architectural ornamentation Architectural windows Architecture Artificial lighting Artists Asbestos-containing materials Balcony balustrade Bamboo crafts & construction Barb Barlines Barrier contraception Bas-relief Base Bathroom Baton Beam steering Beauty and skincare Bed for a baby or toddler Bed-wetting Beehive Bees and beekeeping Binding Bird's beak Blacksmithing tools Blazoning Blushing Board material Boards Branching Bricklaying Bricklaying (2) Bronzeworking Brown-haired Buds on plants Building a castle Building a wall Cane plant Carpentry nails Carrying items in a bag Carrying items in a pocket Catch-rope Catching fish Catching fish (2) Ceramics Chests and drawers Chopping or cutting Christian cross Church Circle or sphere Clasping or holding together Closed coffin Cloth/towel Coal Coating a surface Cobbing as a form of fishing Color codes Colour Columns & features Combat weapons Concrete Connecting hook Container for tools Container or receptacle Containers Conveyor belt components Covering something with a tarp Craftsmanship Craftsmanship (2) Cranking Creating art from paper Creating art with paint Crenellation in architecture Cross shape Crossing or intersecting Custom tailoring Cutting Cutting or slicing Cutting or slicing something Cutting or trimming something Cutting or trimming something (2) Cutting with a knife Dehusking Device used to cook food Device used to hang clothes Diamond cutting Different shades of brown Different types of beds Different types of clay Different types of clay (2) Different types of soap Digging Dishwashing Dog-ear Doing laundry Door hardware Door in a building Drafting Drilling a hole in a material Drilling with tools Early firearms Edge finishing Egg crate foam Embellishment Encapsulation Encircling Enclosing Engraving Erecting shoring Explosives Extreme weather Fashion Craftsmen Fastening Fastening something Features of the face or head Fencing Fencing with swords Feudal land divisions Fire and fire-related items Firearms Firing a weapon Fishing boats and gear Fishing equipment Fishing for shellfish Fishing profession Flat Food preparation Forests and forestry Forking Fortification Fortification (2) Fortification (3) Frogs Furniture Gardening hoes Gemology Gilding Glassworking Glaze Glossy or shiny surface Gray/grey shade Grinding or crushing Grinding or crushing materials Grinding stone Growing plants indoors Gyration Hair color terms Hand tools Hand tools used in woodworking Handcrafting Harvesting Having blonde hair Haymaking Headed threaded rod Hearing aids & protection Heated structure Hedge as a type of plant Hinges Hippo Honey as a food Hooks Human neck Husking corn Indenting Insect-like Installing shingles on a roof Intricate woodworking Iridescence Iron and steel Iron and steel production Japanese swordsmanship Knife Knives Knob end Knob or a protuberance Knotted Laboratory flask Lead pigments used in paint Leaping Leaving a mark on something Length Like Like something else Like-like Likeness to an animal Lime Lime = CaO Livestock farming Locking or securing something Lockpicking Locks and keys Machining Maintaining a lawn Making something neat and tidy Making things by hand Marble as a type of stone Marking Martial arts Mechanical fasteners Medicinal throat lozenge Megaliths Metal alloys Metalworking Metalworking (2) Metalworking (3) Mowing a field Nail-biting Nasal shape/size National flag Number 2 pencil Origami Overflowing Padded envelope Panel board Paper used for baking Papermaking Pearly Peatland in particular Pegging Pendulums in physics Pens and writing instruments People who fish for a living Physical barrier or filter Physical key Physical locks Physical wall Picket fence Plant growth Plant-like Planting and growing seeds Planting and propagating seeds Planting plants Plants growing from seeds Plastering Plough Ploughing Plugging or blocking something Pole Polka dot pattern Pottery and ceramics Poultices Powder Precious metals Pricking Prod Producing fruit Providing support or strength Pulling the trigger Rainbow-like phenomenon Rat-catching Receptacle for waste Recycling Reddish color Resembling an animal Resembling an animal/object Restaurant chef Restraining Retail store Riveting Rock types Roof Root Rubber Rug Salt as a mineral or seasoning Sand as a type of sediment Sash window Sawing with a tool Scooping Screws and screwdrivers Sculpture Sealing blocks air gaps Seams Secret hideaway Sedimentary rocks Sedimentary rocks (2) Seed dispersal Serving dish Setting stones in jewelry Shade Sharp edge Shears Shelter or hiding place Shield-bearer Shooting a gun Shooting sports Shooting with a gun Shopping for second-hand items Similar animals Skid mark Small Small branches or twigs Small in size Small shelter or dwelling Snap Soap and cleaning products Spear-throwing Specialty room Spider sense Splitting or cutting wood Spoon as a utensil Spurring something on Stadium seating Stairs Stick Stickers Stone-related activities Stopping something Storing items in a closet Stove Stoves Structural beams Structure that houses bells Sugar cane Sugar cane production Suspended Taking apart a gun Textile fibers Theater curtains Theatrical stage Threshing grain Throwing stones Tiling Timber framing Timber roof framing Toilet Tool used to clean or groom Tools used to manipulate Tower Toys Transporting luggage Trapping something or someone Traps Treasure hunting Tree trimming Trees and plants Twisting or winding something Tying a bow tie Tying knots Tying knots (2) Tying objects together Tying something Type of soft UFO Phenomenon Unit of length Using a bow and arrow Using a plow to till the soil Using a spear as a weapon Using a tool to do so Using a tool with a forked end Using aerosols Using colors to create art Using wire to create a fence Utilizing nature's resources Vegetable-like Verdant Wax uses Weapons and military equipment Wheel Window covering Window treatments Wood carving Woodland or forest Woodworking Woodworking (2) Woodworking (3) Woodworking joints Woodworking tools Woodworking tools (2) Working in the lumber industry Working with glass Workshop Wrapping Wrapping something in a thin Wrench Wrenching Yellow-averse ZIP compression


This subject index is an experimental OneLook feature. We've grouped words and phrases into thousands of clusters based on a statistical analysis of how they are used in writing. Some of the words and concepts may be vulgar or offensive. The names of the clusters were written automatically and may not precisely describe every word within them.

How do I use OneLook's thesaurus / reverse dictionary?

OneLook lets you find any kind of word for any kind of writing. Like a traditional thesaurus, you can use it to find synonyms and antonyms, but it's far more flexible. Describe what you're looking for with a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence. Type in your description and hit Enter (or select a word that shows up in the autocomplete preview) to see the related words. You can order, filter, and explore the words that come back in a variety of creative ways. Here's a video which goes over some of the basics.

What are some examples?

Task
Example searches
🔆 Find a word by describing it barrel maker
before the flood
museum guide
search for food
urge to travel
what a milliner makes
tried twice for the same crime
when cancer spreads through the body
🔆 Explore synonyms and related concepts fancy
baseball
clouds
twisty
push
industrial revolution
🔆 Get a list of words in some category ("type of...") type of bird of prey
type of soft cheese
type of light bulb
🔆 Find more words similar to some examples (comma-separated list) squishy,spongy,gooey
bicycle,motorcycle,scooter
ice cream,pie,cookies
🔆 Answer basic identification questions capital of Vietnam
longest river in the world
original host of Jeopardy
🔆 Solve crossword puzzle clues, or find words if you only know some of the letters.
(Use pattern:description syntax) 		??lon:synthetic fabric
s?nt?:christmas
l*ch*:fruit
??????:hit
c*:board game

Exploring the results

Click on any result to see definitions and usage examples tailored to your search, as well as links to follow-up searches and additional usage information when available. OneLook knows about more than 2 million different words and expressions covering every topic under the sun. Try exploring a favorite topic for a while and you'll be surprised how much new stuff there is to learn!

Ordering the results

Your results will initially appear with the most closely related word shown first, the second-most closely shown second, and so on. You can re-order the results in a variety of different ways, including alphabetically, by length, by popularity, by modernness, by formality, and by other aspects of style. Click the box that says "Closest meaning first..." to see them all. (Here's a short video about sorting and filtering with OneLook Thesaurus.)

Filtering the results

You can refine your search by clicking on the "Advanced filters" button on the results page. This lets you narrow down your results to match a certain starting letter, number of letters, number of syllables, related concept, meter, vowel sound, or number of syllables. Read more details on filters if you're interested in how they work.

I'm only looking for synonyms! What's with all of these weird results?

For some kinds of searches only the first result or the first few results are truly synonyms or good substitutions for your search word. We highlight these results in yellow. Beyond that, the results are meant to inspire you to consider similar words and adjacent concepts. Not all of the results will make sense at first, but they're all connected with your search in some way. We'd rather give you too many options than too few. If you're unsure of a word, we urge you to click on it to check its definitions and usage examples before using it in your Oscars acceptance speech or honors thesis.

What are letter patterns?

If you know some letters in the word you're looking for, you can enter a pattern instead of, or in addition to, a description. Here are how patterns work:
  • The asterisk (*) matches any number of letters. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for any part of a word or phrase. For example, if you enter blueb* you'll get all the terms that start with "blueb"; if you enter *bird you'll get all the terms that end with "bird"; if you enter *lueb* you'll get all the terms that contain the sequence "lueb", and so forth. An asterisk can match zero letters, too.

  • The question mark (?) matches exactly one letter. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for a single letter or symbol. The query l?b?n?n,  for example, will find the word "Lebanon".

  • The number-sign (#) matches any English consonant. For example, the query tra#t finds the word "tract" but not "trait".

  • The at-sign (@) matches any English vowel (including "y"). For example, the query abo@t finds the word "about" but not "abort".

  • NEW! The comma (,) lets you combine multiple patterns into one. For example, the query ?????,*y* finds 5-letter words that contain a "y" somewhere, such as "happy" and "rhyme".

  • NEW! Use double-slashes (//) before a group of letters to unscramble them (that is, find anagrams.) For example, the query //soulbeat will find "absolute" and "bales out", and re//teeprsn will find "represent" and "repenters". You can use another double-slash to end the group and put letters you're sure of to the right of it. For example, the query //blabrcs//e will find "scrabble". Question marks can signify unknown letters as usual; for example, //we??? returns 5-letter words that contain a W and an E, such as "water" and "awake".

  • NEW! A minus sign (-) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "exclude these letters". For example, the query sp???-ei finds 5-letter words that start with "sp" but do not contain an "e"or an "i", such as "spoon" and "spray".

  • NEW! A plus sign (+) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "restrict to these letters". For example, the query *+ban finds "banana".

  • On OneLook's main search or directly on OneLook Thesaurus, you can combine patterns and thesaurus lookups by putting a colon (:) after a pattern and then typing a description of the word, as in ??lon:synthetic fabric and the other examples above.

Other ways to access this service:

Is this available in any language other than English?

The same interface is now available in Spanish at OneLook Tesauro as a beta version. More languages are coming!

How does it work?

We use a souped-up version of our own Datamuse API, which in turn uses several lingustic resources described in the "Data sources" section on that page. The definitions come from Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and WordNet. Here are some known problems with the current system.
Much gratitude to Gultchin et al for the algorithm behind the "Most funny-sounding" sort order.

Profanity and problematic word associations

If you're using this site with children, be forewarned you'll find profanity and other vulgar expressions if you use OneLook frequently. (We take an unflinching look at how words have actually been used; scrubbing out hurtful wordswould be a disservice to everyone.)

Some of the thesaurus results come from a statistical analysis of the words in a large collection of books written in the past two centuries. A handful of times we've found that this analysis can lead us to suggest word associations that reflect racist or harmful stereotypes present in this source material. If you see one of these, please know that we do not endorse what the word association implies. In egregious cases we will remove it from the site if you report it to us via the feedback link below.

Privacy

No personally identifying information is ever collected on this site or by any add-ons or apps associated with OneLook. OneLook Thesaurus sends your search query securely to the Datamuse API, which keeps a log file of the queries made to the service in the last 24 hours. The log file is deleted after 24 hours and we do not retain any long-term information about your IP address or invididual queries.

Who's behind this site and where can I send my comments and complaints feedback?

OneLook is a service of Datamuse. You can send us feedback here.

The sunburst logo (🔆) is the emoji symbol for "high brightness", which we aspire to create with OneLook. (The graphic came from the open-source Twemoji project.)


Watch a video overview of OneLook Thesaurus