Students of translation skills often have to undo the negative and incorrect effects of misleading advice.

They have been told to use a thesaurus in order to locate the right word or a synonym. They are taught to use a thesaurus instead of a synonym finder. To compound the issue, Microsoft Word includes a "Thesaurus" - but it's really a synonym finder. Furthermore, many books have been published under the misleading title of "thesaurus" or the like. They may be called a "Quick and easy thesaurus" (implying that the real one is not quick and not easy) or an "Alphabetical thesaurus" (thus replacing the concept of a thesaurus with yet another synonym finder).

Librarians should know how to use the thesaurus in its pristine form - as a classification of the world's knowledge in an orderly, systematic manner.

That's what a thesaurus does, and it does its work well.

A thesaurus includes library-style "see-also" references to related or similar items. That's what those numbers represent.

The first pages of the thesaurus explain its organization in the clearest possible manner, with topics and opposites. Roget created a wonderful and sensible classification scheme.

The thesaurus can and should be a very useful tool for librarians. It is useful for writers. It is a mistake in the hands of a translator.