Selection of entries
The primary purpose of the thesaurus is to give lists of synonyms for the common everyday words of English: words with roughly the same meaning as the entry word or 'headword'. Not every word has synonyms. Some words, especially terms denoting kinds of animals, plants, and physical objects, have no synonyms, so they do not get entries in a thesaurus. The user will look in vain for synonyms of gerbil and geranium. There is an entry for squirrel, but it is not there for the noun denoting the animal, which has no synonym. The entry is there in order to give synonyms for the phrasal verb squirrel something away, and as a reference point for a table
(
) of different kinds of squirrels and related rodents.
The words selected as entries are general words that
Tables (A table is displayed as a 
in this model.)
A special feature of the New Oxford Thesaurus of English is its 480 tables (
), which are included throughout to give additional information relevant to particular headwords. They range from lists of different breeds or kinds of animals, birds, and plants to lists of famous artists, architects, and scientists. For example, at the entry for actor/actress there is a selection of synonyms for the words themselves, together with a comprehensive list of
Certain headwords are included despite the fact that they have no synonyms, in
order to direct the user to a table (
). For example, at the entry for volcano the user will find no synonyms but instead a pointer to a list of major volcanoes, together with their location and the date of their most recent eruption. Tables
(
) covering the essential vocabulary of such fields as art, economics,
computing, and cricket are also included. The provision of these tables (
) makes this thesaurus an invaluable aid to
source of encyclopedic information on subjects as diverse as marsupials and military leaders.
Homonyms
Homonyms are words that are written the same but which have completely different and unrelated meanings. For example, the bark of a dog is a completely different word from the bark of a tree. There are three different words spelled bay, and four spelled sound. Some words that are written with the same spelling are pronounced differently. In such cases, a note on pronunciation is given, either by giving a word that rhymes with the headword, e.g.
wind1 (rhymes with 'tinned') 
noun wind2 (rhymes with 'mind') 
verb
or by stating where the stress falls, e.g.
defect1 (stress on first syllable) 
noun defect2 (stress on second syllable) 
verb
Synonyms
It is sometimes argued that no two words have exactly the same meaning. Even words as similar in meaning as close and shut may have slightly different nuances. Closing a shop implies that the shop is no longer open for business, so no one can come in. On the other hand, shutting a shop implies that the shop is being made secure, so nothing can be taken out. A similar distinction is found between strong and powerful: powerful enemies may threaten from outside, but a strong defence on the inside will deter them from attacking. However, these are unusually subtle distinctions. For most practical purposes, close and shut have the same meaning, as do strong and powerful. Other synonyms are more distant, or emphasize different aspects of the meaning. For example, another close synonym of strong is muscular, but it places much more emphasis on physical strength. By contrast, stalwart and staunch are synonyms that emphasize more abstract aspects of this meaning of strong. Forceful, secure, durable, loud, intense, bright, and alcoholic are other close synonyms of strong, but all in quite different senses. They are not, of course, synonyms of each other.
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