Hi, i was wondering if you can help me out as i am not the best at selecting words. my dilema is that i need a word or phrase apart from the full monty that means complete, the best, everything number 1 to mention a few. you see i own a conservatory company and want a word or phrase that i can put to one of my standard conservatories packed full with extras. so a describing word would be ideal if you can help me out i will send you the ad with the phrase in it for you to see.
regards john

What you need is a thesaurus:

Best:

ace, beyond compare, capital, champion, chief, choicest, crowing, culminating, finest, first, first-class, first-rate, foremost, greatest, highest, incomparable, inimitable, leading, matchless, nonpareil, number one, optimum, outstanding, paramount, peerless, perfect, pre-eminent, premium, prime, principal, sans pareil, super, superlative, supreme, terrific, tops, tough, transcendent, unequaled, unparalleled, unrivaled.

Hope this helps a little.

JB

What you need is a thesaurus:

Where would we be without them? If you don't have one to hand try www.dictionary.com which has a dictionary and thesaurus. I use it all the time.

Hope this helps.
Take care
Tracy

Top Banana!

Or try the thesaurus - some people are snobbish about them, but I love Rogets.

Lady B

Oooh, I've never heard of people being snobbish about thesauruses. I wonder why? To me it seems wonderful to search for the perfect word, and the reader will never know whether the perfect word came effortlessly or after much thought.

Deb

I adore old thesaurus' (thesauri?). You find some lovely words in there, that no one ever uses anymore, but fit well in an archaic, fantastical world.

JB

People are wrongly snobbish about thesauruses because they think a 'properly educated' person doesn't need them, but knows all the words. I use my Bloomsbury thesaurus (Roget-style, but much, much better) all the time.

People are rightly snobbish about thesauruses because there are plenty of people who will write a perfectly straightforward, sensible letter or whatever, and then get out the thesaurus and translate it (often wrongly) into what they see as posher/more literary/cleverer language. Some English teachers encourage children to do that too, which drives me nuts. On the other hand, I suppose it probably does increase their vocabulary a bit, if they're not reading enough.

Emma

So I guess you're saying that people are snobbish about the ways in which you can abuse a thesaurus.

I don't believe anyone knows all words, but to me the main point of a thesaurus is that it reminds you of words which you know but haven't sprung to mind on that particular occasion. I doubt I'd use a word from a thesaurus I didn't already know.

How strange - I just think of it as a useful resource on occasion.

Deb

Yes, that's what I use it for. It's particularly useful for hist fic, or anything where the voice is very distant from your own, for reminding you of the other possibilities that haven't yet come to mind.

Emma

I use it to variate, if I've already used or overused a certain word. But I also go hunting for the weird words, like 'saprophyte' and 'gormandizer'. To a fantasy writer, a thesaurus, like Brewer's, is a rich resource.

JB

Yes, I just used it when I had two instances of 'pressed' near each other. I didn't find a precise word for my purpose but it gave me an idea which I then used instead.

Deb