Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus
Highly interactive site offers a new "look" (literally) at the English language!
Grade Level: 9-12, Advanced
http://visualthesaurus.com/index.jsp
CONTENT: "The Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus is an exploration of sense relationships within the English language." Type in a word and a spatial map of linguistic associations is displayed.
AESTHETICS: This site is high-tech all the way. It not only has visual appeal but the features are quite amazing.
ORGANIZATION: The Thesaurus can be searched by typing a word into the box on the left middle of the page. It's a good idea to take the guided tour in order to get the most from the site; there are many features to explore. The display also has a help button in the upper left corner that can be turned on and off.
REVIEW: The Visual Thesaurus explores the relationships between words and their meanings and displays them as spatial maps. At least fourteen different relationships can be displayed. The word being searched appears in the middle of the display with the meanings displayed as circles connected to the word. Each of the circles is color coded according to the different parts of speech. Words associated with the same meaning are also displayed and connected to the shared meaning with solid lines. The user can choose to display the words and meanings in either 2-D or 3-D. Additionally there is a meaning list that displays all the meanings in the right panel and a history list in the bottom right corner that keeps track of all the words you have searched. It's a little complicated but very interesting once you get the hang of it.
