ShmoopTube

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

So you probably know by now that synonyms are words or phrases that mean more or less [Coop discussing synonyms]

00:17

the same as another completely different word or phrase.

00:20

Y'know, like…"small" and "tiny," or "in good shape," and "fit as a fiddle." [A puppy walking on the grass and man working out]

00:24

But that “more or less” bit?

00:26

It's actually pretty important.

00:27

And by that, we mean you can't just go substituting any word with any synonym and assume everything

00:32

will work out okay.

00:33

That’s because not all synonyms are perfect fits––some synonyms are closer to the [Person playing tetris on mobile phone]

00:37

original word than others.

00:39

Take the word big.

00:40

Say you were writing about how big your birthday cake was but, naturally, you wanted to spice [A large birthday cake and girl appears]

00:44

up your writing a bit, so you grabbed that thesaurus you carry around with you everywhere

00:48

and looked up synonyms for the word “big.”

00:50

You might find words like gigantic, fat, huge, massive, and tremendous. [list of synonyms for Big in a thesaurus]

00:54

But – hold your horses – you can’t just toss any of those words into your sentence

00:57

and expect it to sound right.

00:59

Because while saying that your birthday cake was “gigantic” might sound good, saying

01:02

it was “full-figured” might be a little… weird…

01:05

The point we're trying to get across here is that word choice has power. [Dino talking about word choice]

01:09

Synonyms don't always mean the exact same thing.

01:12

Actually, depending on how they're used, they can sometimes end up meaning totally different things.

01:17

“Silly” and “stupid” might be listed as synonyms in your thesaurus, but calling [Boy and girl with i'm with silly and i'm with stupid shirts]

01:20

someone “silly” and calling them “stupid” would result in two very different reactions.

01:26

And just as a helpful hint as you go through life: don’t go around calling people stupid.

01:30

Basically, it's important to put some thought into your word choice before you actually [Girl sits at desk and thinks about word choice]

01:33

write it down.

01:34

The accuracy of your writing is important, so your word choices should be treated with

01:39

thoughtfulness and care.

01:40

So you can tell your friend her new dress looks nice, or marvelous, or pleasant, but [Boy tells girl her dress is nice]

01:45

don't tell her it looks amusing.

01:47

…unless it has clowns on it or something. [Girl wearing dress with clowns and boy laughing]

01:49

Then it probably is pretty amusing.

Full Transcript