Book excerpt: A classic reference book that has been used by millions all over the world, Roget’s International Thesaurus is the product of more than a century and a half of continual expansion, reorganization, and improvement. Today this book is not only the most time-tested and bestselling thesaurus ever, but, newly revised, it is also the most up-to-date and comprehensive reflection of the English language as it is currently used. The revolutionary achievement of Dr. Peter Mark Roget’s first edition in 1852 was the development of a brand-new principle: the arrangement of words and phrases according to their meanings. Dr. Roget’s system brings together in one place all the terms associated with a single thought or concept; it allows a wide-ranging survey of language within a book of relatively modest size, without the space-consuming repetitions that so severely limit the scope of thesauruses arranged in a dictionary format with A-to-Z entries. This brilliant organization makes Roget’s International Thesaurus both the most efficient word finder and a cutting-edge aid in stimulating thought, organizing ideas, and writing and speaking more clearly and effectively. This revised and updated seventh edition features thousands of new words and phrases, including the newest slang words and expressions that color and inform everyday language. At the same time, it retains all the hallmarks that have made Roget’s International Thesaurus the most popular word reference book next to the dictionary.