The Well-Spoken Thesaurus

Question 1

At that point →

Answer 1

With that

Question 2

Hold up to →

Answer 2

…bear the weight of

Question 3

Partnership →

Answer 3

…alliance

Question 4

Peaceful place →

Answer 4

Far from the madding crowd

Question 5

Partying →

Answer 5

Revelry

Question 6

Lurk →

Answer 6

Lie in wait

Skulk

Question 7

Dumb →

Answer 7

- of questionable intellect

- benighted

- obtuse

- inane

- bovine

- non too bright

- unenlightened

Question 8

Dulled →

Answer 8

- lobotomized

Question 9

And others →

Answer 9

- et al

Question 10

And →

Answer 10

- as well as

- this, together with

- both in

- moreover

- and alike

- and what’s more

- with

“We would tell our chldren: if you travel as far as you can that way, as far as you can that way, you will come to places that lie more distant from our sun than we do. You will find thick water, not light and quick moving as it is with us. The water is slow with cold, and on its surface it wrinkles as it moves, or even, sometimes, makes plates or flakes that are solid. This is ice.”

Question 11

Make sure →

Answer 11

- see that

- take pains to see that

- make it my business to

Question 12

Came near →

Answer 12

- drew near

“In the first days of December the birds, after frequent biting frosts, flew into villages and towns, and even wild beasts came out of dense forests and drew near the houses of people.”

Question 13

Part →

Answer 13

- component of

- arm of

- element of

- constituent of [academic]

- involved in

“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne

Question 14

The kind of →

Answer 14

• what manner of

Question 15

Attracted to →

Answer 15

- drawn to

“Although I was first drawn to math and science by the certainty they promised, today I find the unanswered questions and the unexpected connections at least as attractive.”

Question 16

Describe →

Answer 16

- characterize

- draw a portrait

- tell of

- articulate

- depict

- portray

- convey

- cast it as

- lay out

- paint

Question 17

Rash →

Answer 17

- imprudent

Question 18

In some of the most →

Answer 18

- in certain of the most

Question 19

In spite of →

Answer 19

• not withstanding

- nonetheless

- nevertheless

- irrespective of

Question 20

Stop →

Answer 20

- put a stop to

- draw to a close

- contain

- put an end to

- check

- refrain from further

- desist [academic]

- forbear from

- declare an end to

- bring an end to

- choke off the flow of

- negate the effects of

- restrain

- halt

- relent

- thwart

- dispense with

- quiet

- cease from

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

“In those days cheap apartment were almost impossible to find in Manhattan, so I had to move to Brooklyn. This was in 1947, and one of the pleasant features of that summer which I so vividly remember was the weather, which was sunny and mild, flower-flagrant, alsmost as if the days had been arrested in a seemingly perpetual springtime.”

Question 21

Start talking →

Answer 21

- Get into conversation

“As soon as a boy asks if he may bicycle home with me and we get into conversation, nine out of ten times I can be sure that he will fall head over heels in love immediately and simply won’t allow me out of his sight. After a while it cools down of course, especially as I take little notice of ardent looks and pedal blithely on.” Anne Frank

Question 22

Started →

Answer 22

​- took to

“In his last year at Princeton he read too much and took to wearing spectacles.”

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Question 23

Formless →

Answer 23

- unfashioned

Question 24

Hungry →

Answer 24

- ravenous

- an appetite for

- peckish (somewhat hungry) [British]

- ravening

- voracious

Question 25

Absolutely →

Answer 25

- without question

- without exception

- without doubt

- by any measure

- undoubtedly

- unmistakably

- in no measured terms

- soundly

- categorically

- decidedly

- invariably

- indeed

- in every respect

- out and out

- to be sure

- patently

- without reservation

- in no uncertain terms

- is nothing other than

- utterly [often derogatory]

This is abolutely the best beer on the menu

This is without question the best beer on the menu

Question 26

Harassed →

Answer 26

- hampered

- bedeviled

- beleaguered

- beset

- dragooned

Question 27

Peers →

Answer 27

• counterparts

- cousins

Question 28

Lenient with →

Answer 28

- indulgent towards

Question 29

Spirited →

Answer 29

- exuberant

Question 30

Very little →

Answer 30

- scant

Question 31

Also →

Answer 31

- what’s more

- to say nothing of

- it may be added that

- also to be found

- among other things

- here again

- in turn

- likewise

- moreover

- not the least of which

- and on top of that

- notwithstanding the fact that

- otherwise known as

- parenthetically

- so too did

- if not

- even beyond that

- as a further matter

-…..no less

“This work is in excellent condition - and signed no less.”

Question 32

Access to →

Answer 32

- recourse to

- avail yourself to

- immediacy to

“Immediacy to everything the new hospital had to offer was his first concern.”

Question 33

Cartoon →

Answer 33

- caricature

Question 35

Large area →

Answer 35

- wide swath

- vast region

- expanse

Question 36

Understand (I understand that)

Answer 36

- I take it that

- I recognize that

- I can gather

- I can’t fathom

- I can’t comprehend

- I can’t make out why

- the……..does not escape him

“The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to reach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing. It is a feature of his profession on which he does not remark to Soraya.” - J.M. coetzee, Disgrace

- I grasp the situation

- I am given to understand

- I have come to undertstand

- It is not lost on me

- I arrive at understanding

- I have it that

“It is simply this. That Space, as our mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call length, breadth, and thickness, and is always definable by reference to three planes, each at right angles to the others.” H.G Wells, The Time Machine

As far as I know, the flow of oil has stopped.

I am given to understand that the flow of oil has stopped.

Question 37

Reply →

Answer 37

- respond in like manner

- reciprocate

- retort

Question 38

Caught between →

Answer 38

- hemmed in by

Question 39

Exact opposite →

Answer 39

- on the contrary

- the very opposite of

Question 40

Did not matter →

Answer 40

- mattered not at all

- mattered little

- was of no consequence

Question 41

Eye sores →

Answer 41

- grotesqueries

“The mist took pity on the fretted structures of earlier generations: the Post Office with its shingle-tortured mansard, the red brick minarets of hulking old homes, factories with stingy and sooted windows, wooden tenements colored like mud. The city was full of such grotesqueries, but the clean towers were thrusting them from the business center, and on the farther hills were shining new houses, homes - they seemed - for laughter and tranquility.” Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

Question 42

Burying your head in the sand →

Answer 42

- A fool’s paradise

Question 43

Different →

Answer 43

• far removed from

- contrasted with

- distinct

- different from that of

- in contrast to that of

- disparate (markedly different)

- stand in marked contrast to

- a far cry from

- departs from

- dissimilar

- runs counter to

- quite changed

- differing

- quite a contrast

Question 44

Still are →

Answer 44

- they remain

Question 45

Obtain →

Answer 45

- secure

Question 46

Occur →

Answer 46

- appear

- arise

- come to pass

- befall you

- are borne out

- ensue

- come about

Question 47

Safe →

Answer 47

- out of harm’s way

- secure

- inviolate [academic]

Question 48

Those responsible for →

Answer 48

- those who orchestrated​

- the architects of

Question 49

Thought (he thought) →

Answer 49

- felt

- contemplated

- the idea occurred to him

- thought it only proper that

- had thought fit to

- supposed

“This is a tale of a meeting between two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast. One of them was a science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout. He was a nobody at the time, and he supposed his life was over. He was mistaken.” Kurt Vonnegar, Breakfast of Champions

Question 50

Hold off ⇒

Answer 50

- keep at bay​

- stave off

Question 51

Ass kisser →

Answer 51

- lackey

- obsequious person

- sycophant

Question 52

At the end of the day →

Answer 52

- in the final analysis

- ultimately

“Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. with both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Question 53

Filled with →

Answer 53

- awash in

- bathed in

- marbled with

- instilled with

- dense with

- suffused with

- took and held

“It took and held her with fear.”

- rich in

- levened with

- invested with

- imbued with

- laden with

“For the traveler we see leaning on his neighbour is an honest and well-meaning man and full of melancholy, like those Checkov characters so laden with virtues that they never know success in life.”

Orhan Pamuk, Snow

- fraught with

- steeped in

- freighted with

- rife with

- infused with

“The fragrant pilaf is a kind of savory fish-cake, made out of small hamsi filets wrapped around a thick bed of rice that is infused with herbs, currants and pine nuts.” Yigal Schleifer, New York Times

- infested with

- replete with

- garnished with

- permeated with a sense of

- brimming with

- possessed of

“All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.” Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss