You know what you want to say but can't think of the word. You can describe what you're thinking but you don't know the name for it. Perhaps you have a general word in mind but you need a more specific term. The Writer's Digest Flip Dictionary solves these common problems! Best-selling author Barbara Ann Kipfer has crated a huge reference that offers cues and clue words to lead writers to the exact phrase or specific term they need. It goes beyond the standard reverse dictionary format to offer dozens of charts and tables, listing groups by subject (such as automobiles, clothing types, plants, tools, etc.) Writers of fiction and nonfiction will use it to find that elusive word they need, and word lovers will find it an entertaining book to simply sit and browse through. Crossword puzzlers will also find it invaluable. In all, this indispensable desk reference is as necessary as a dictionary or thesaurus - but a lot more fun.
"Omit needless words," intone Strunk and White in The Elements of Style; "use definite, specific, concrete language." In order to use the best word for the job, though, you have to know it. The Flip Dictionary is full of words you may have forgotten and words you never knew, all accessed by their meaning. Look up "mounds and hills, with," and you will find tumulus. Search "the ropes connecting the harness and the canopy of a parachute," and you'll find shrouds. There's no need to say "lowest point in orbit" when you can say perigee, or "lowest deck of a ship" when you can say orlop. We don't know when we'd ever find a chance to use the word tomally, but we like knowing the one word out there that means "lobster liver." And, oh, the lists! Of apples and art movements, beers and birding terms, constellations and clothes (including 47 kinds of shirt), fears and ferns. The same caveats apply as with the use of a thesaurus: some of the definitions are a bit off ("hater" is vague for misanthrope), others are rather informal (boner, for instance, to mean "error"), and still others are so specific that you will want to be sure that you truly have found the right word for the job. Great fun. --Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
30% of this book is extremely useful--the rest, useless:
As a fiction writer, I use this book often for two extremely helpful aspects: 1) The lists of different names for colors, kinds of fabrics, etc. 2) The thesauras-type entries contain some words that only particially mean the same thing. This in-exactness means that you find words that are closely related to the word you originally looked up; you receive a more comprehensive list of suggestions. (This feature is great for people who already know the exact definitions of words. Otherwise, I suggest a... more info
Excellent resource for the word hungry:
I chanced upon this eye-catching book at a large bookstore. The conspicuous tagline states: "For when you know what you want to say but can't think of the word." That sounded like familiar territory.
I bought it and have been using it countless of times. It really boosts one's writing.
Actually fun to flip through:
This is a reverse dictionary with a lot of lists, charts, etc. Although it can be confusing to use, it is one of the best reference books I've seen for just flipping through. Lots of surprises and interesting facts tucked away in sidebars.
While there is plenty of words and good relationships, I found its organization a bit difficult to use when needing to rapidly find a word. Saying that, it's also the one most often on my desk and not in the bookshelf with the others.
Do we really need this?:
This Flip Dictionary isn't something really new. And in some of the areas it covers, there are serious errors.
It's probably unfair to ask one author, working by herself, to give us a book on the quality of, say, Roget's International Thesaurus a volume of over 1300 pages published by Thomas Y. Crowell and prepared by a large professional team building up on 150 years of scholarship and research.
However, life isn't always "fair." When I write, I want to know that the information is comprehensive and... more info
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