Synonyms are beautiful, as well as admirable, seductive, angelic, attractive, beautiful and more

Spanish Jesuit and author Baltasar Gracián once said that “a synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other.” Obviously, he was writing before the spell checker. Much earlier, it turns out, as his major work, CRITICON, was published in three parts in the 1650s. Wikipedia describes it as “a long allegorical novel with philosophical undertones.”

Hmm. Did you use your thesaurus to write it? It’s possible. Although Roget’s dictionary of synonyms was not published until 1852, synonyms were collected by Philo of Byblos in the first and second centuries of the common era. So, Gracián may have had access to something.

It was nothing like what is available to modern writers, who simply type a word into a search function to find alternatives. Why, why don’t many of them do it?

Repeated words mess up the flow of prose. They make it clumsy. Here’s an example: It was a beautiful day. Clare couldn’t believe how beautiful the flowers were in her garden. In particular, her multicolored daylilies seemed to capture the beauty of the day. The orange, yellow and peach flowers made a beautiful display against the blue sky.

Here’s the same graph using synonyms: It was a dazzling day. Clare couldn’t believe how beautiful the flowers were in her garden. In particular, her multicolored daylilies seemed to capture the essence of morning. The orange, yellow and peach flowers made a brilliant display against the blue sky.

The second paragraph avoids the awkwardness of the first. And since synonyms are not identical in meaning, analyzing them to determine which best captures exactly what you mean will make your prose richer. Dazzling is synonymous with beautiful, but a dazzling day is different from a beautiful one. Dazzling connotes a freshness or newness, as well as bright sunshine. A beautiful day is simply pleasing to the eye.

That said, a writer can go too far with synonyms. Looking up words that sound big and important in the thesaurus can make the writer sound affected. He can also lead to misused words. In this version of the paragraph, the use of synonyms has gone wrong: Clare couldn’t believe how statuesque the flowers were in her garden. In particular, the multiple chromaticity of her daylilies seemed to capture the radiance of the day. The orange, yellow and peach flowers made a splendid display against the beryl sky.

So maybe, to put a twist on the Baltasar Gracián quote above, you shouldn’t use a synonym, you (and your spell checker) don’t know how to spell.