Carefulwords.com

Languages and libraries

thesaurus

SHOW HN2022

258points
53comments
#181of 2,570 in 2022
Top 8%of 2022 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

15 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 9 critical, out of 41 comments about the project. Thread score +0.17.

Execution: 0 for, 8 againstIdea: 5 for, 1 againstDesign: 4 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Clean design and poetry/literary quotes add inspiration

    From 4 comments
    • This is gorgeous. I was just discussing the need for a better thesaurus with my partner! I love the quotes. One suggestion — could you make the result words clickable? So as to…
      noodlesUK on HN
    • This is beautiful and even revolutionary. The references from poetry and other great works that provide context for why those words mean what they do to us are a stroke of genius.
      motohagiography on HN
    • I love it, especially the poetry quotations! I have wanted something like this for a long time. Thank you.
      rex_lupi on HN
    • This is excellent. It would be even more fun if clicking on one of the synonyms opened a page for that synonym. I really like the quotes and the esteem for the classical, and myth.
      2devnull on HN
  • Better than alternatives like Power Thesaurus for some

    From 2 comments
    • this is really nice!! I'll be using this instead of Powerthesaurus, for sure. Could you turn the suggested words into hyperlinks, please?
      yawnxyz on HN
    • This is really nice! I generally use powerthesarus.org when I'm in need of synonyms, however the slimmed-down design of this and quotes are a charming touch. The dataset also…
      tfsh on HN

Objections

  • Many results are not true synonyms; related words mixed in

    From 4 comments
    • I must be missing something here. https://carefulwords.com/fast gives back 349 results, starting with "Barmecidal feast, Encratism, Friday, Lenten diet, Lenten entertainment,…
      ivanche on HN
    • Power Thesaurus gives much better results imho. Careful Words includes a lot of results that are not synonyms at all, and just relate to the query in some way. So depends on what…
      yreg on HN
    • Some odd associations here... whimsy gives back, among other things: maggot I have never seen a whimsical maggot, nor do I think I want to
      IAmPym on HN
    • These aren't really synonyms right? What are they? How are you getting the data? (I'm basing this on solitutde - alienation example).
      nathias on HN
  • Results sorted alphabetically rather than ranked

    From 1 comment
    • Power Thesaurus gives much better results imho. Careful Words includes a lot of results that are not synonyms at all, and just relate to the query in some way. So depends on what…
      yreg on HN
  • Unknown words give a 404 page rather than a helpful message

    From 3 comments
    • just noting that you can put the term in the URL on there: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hacker I like your site but the word list would be much easier for me to skim through…
      crtasm on HN
    • This is silly but typing "poop" in the search bar and hitting enter gives a "Page not found" -- maybe the search auto complete drop-down can let you know that a word isn't in the…
      vector_spaces on HN
    • I get a Netlify 404 error when searching for words that aren't in the list. For example "innovate" [0] is a miss but "innovation" [1] is valid. You could make the look up more…
      pbronez on HN

Requests

  • Make result words clickable links

    From 3 comments
    • This is gorgeous. I was just discussing the need for a better thesaurus with my partner! I love the quotes. One suggestion — could you make the result words clickable? So as to…
      noodlesUK on HN
    • this is really nice!! I'll be using this instead of Powerthesaurus, for sure. Could you turn the suggested words into hyperlinks, please?
      yawnxyz on HN
    • This is excellent. It would be even more fun if clicking on one of the synonyms opened a page for that synonym. I really like the quotes and the esteem for the classical, and myth.
      2devnull on HN
  • Preserve double-click copy alongside links

    From 3 comments
    • Maybe you could put an icon next to the word that copies it to the clipboard when clicked. Some websites use an image of a piece of paper with a top corner folded over to…
      deopot on HN
    • I would second vtimofeenko’s suggestion to use an icon with a link to preserve double-click-to-copy.
      divbzero on HN
    • For a site like this, which has a very clear single function and which people are likely to visit again and again, it might be justifiable to have a small control somewhere on…
      gnfargbl on HN
  • Provide an API or export of the thesaurus

    From 1 comment
    • This is great! I have been working on something related, a tool to watch over my own writing and suggest better words: https://github.com/mcculley/WordWhittler Would you consider…
      mcculley on HN
  • Stemming redirects for word variants

    From 1 comment
    • I get a Netlify 404 error when searching for words that aren't in the list. For example "innovate" [0] is a miss but "innovation" [1] is valid. You could make the look up more…
      pbronez on HN

Questions

  • Where does the thesaurus data come from?

    From 3 comments
    • This is very cool! I'm reminded a little bit of definr.com, which was a basic super-fast online dictionary but sadly disappeared a few years ago. Where did you get the thesaurus…
      antognini on HN
    • This is really nice! I generally use powerthesarus.org when I'm in need of synonyms, however the slimmed-down design of this and quotes are a charming touch. The dataset also…
      tfsh on HN
    • These aren't really synonyms right? What are they? How are you getting the data? (I'm basing this on solitutde - alienation example).
      nathias on HN
  • How much is hand curated?

    From 1 comment
    • This is really nice! I generally use powerthesarus.org when I'm in need of synonyms, however the slimmed-down design of this and quotes are a charming touch. The dataset also…
      tfsh on HN

Alternatives named

  • Power Thesaurus

    From 2 comments
    • This is really nice! I generally use powerthesarus.org when I'm in need of synonyms, however the slimmed-down design of this and quotes are a charming touch. The dataset also…
      tfsh on HN
    • Power Thesaurus gives much better results imho. Careful Words includes a lot of results that are not synonyms at all, and just relate to the query in some way. So depends on what…
      yreg on HN
  • thesaurus.com

    From 1 comment
    • just noting that you can put the term in the URL on there: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hacker I like your site but the word list would be much easier for me to skim through…
      crtasm on HN
  • freethesaurus.com

    From 1 comment
    • How many other thesaurus websites have you examined? It sounds like you assumed thesaurus.com was the only one in existence. (Personally I use freethesaurus.com, and if I need…
      Timwi on HN
  • onelook.com

    From 1 comment
    • Love this! The addition of phrases (I searched "invent" and got "break ground" "bring forth" and "hit upon") is what my other favorite word explorer (onelook.com) is missing.…
      jasonshen on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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