For my exploration of visual thesauri, I chose the word "estimate". In all honesty, for the first few minutes I just dragged the center dot along the screen and entertained myself by watching the words fly around behind it. From there "estimate" I went to "idea", then to "musical theme", then off to "melodious", then to "mellow". It's interesting to see where these distantly connected words will take you. "Mellow" is my favorite word that I came across, so I chose to stop on it. This word can mean everything from "adj. having attained to kindliness or gentleness through age and experience; "mellow wisdom"; "the peace of mellow age" to "adj. unhurried and relaxed; "a mellow conversation".
Usually, I don't use a thesaurus when I'm writing. I have a relatively large vocabulary, and I only implement the use of a thesaurus if the only words that come to mind don't quite achieve what I've been trying to accomplish. When I do, I'm always very careful with the words I choose to ensure that my intent is communicated correctly.
When I chose to look up the word "lounge" I came across "lollygag", which is a fantastic word that isn't used nearly enough, in my opinion. When I looked up "stand", I came across "hunker down" (to bend or huddle into a crouch or seated position) and "joggle", which means "n. a screw that screws into a nut to form a fastener". Can't say that I see the connection there.
I enjoy coming across fun words here and there, but I don't actively seek them out, for the most part. When I do find complicated or unusual words that I like, I usually don't implement them in conversations. It tends to be more hassle than it's worth to explain the word's meaning to someone who doesn't understand. Still, this is an interesting online tool that I wasn't previously aware of.
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