-
#1
«Turnkey foundation»: we have a finely-tuned business setup scheme/formula/something else ?? to help you launch your own charitable foundation»
A non-profit offers services related to launching new charitable foundations. It will take care of IT infrastructure, funding, business processes, etc., so when the new owners take over operation, they will have a well-functioning enterprise. This non-profit has successfully completed such pojects before and has a solid business setup… what?
Any ideas will be greately appreciated
-
#2
Perhaps «model»? Or «template»?
-
#3
What is the original sentence? Or did you write it yourself?
I find the use of ‘turnkey’ odd in this context. Where I work (rail engineering)we also have turnkey projects, where we do literally everything for our customer and hand their entire rail system over to them, ready to be used by passengers. I don’t understand how a foundation can be described as turnkey.
WR Dictionary
adj.
- Building, Business Also, turn′-key′. of, pertaining to, or resulting from an arrangement under which a private contractor designs and constructs a project, building, etc., for sale when completely ready for occupancy or operation: turn-key housing, turnkey contract.
- fully equipped;
ready to go into operation:a turnkey business
-
#4
What is the original sentence? Or did you write it yourself?
The original sentence is in Russian
we also have turnkey projects, where we do literally everything for our customer and hand their entire rail system over to them,
Same here. It’s literally an enterprise ready to go into operation, but in the charitable sector. I don’t know how exactly it works, but that’s what this overview of the charitable market I’m working on says
-
#5
Same here. It’s literally an enterprise ready to go into operation, but in the charitable sector. I don’t know how exactly it works, but that’s what this overview of the charitable market I’m working on says
In Russian, though. Turnkey doesn’t work in English in this context.
-
#6
In Russian, though. Turnkey doesn’t work in English in this context.
![:)]( "Smile :)")
I don’t follow If there’s such a thing as a turnkey business, why doesn’t a specific type of business work?
Or do you mean that a foundation (the result of a project) can’t be turn-key?
Last edited: Mar 3, 2023
-
#7
Perhaps «model»? Or «template»?
A «model» is a bit narrower in meaning than what i’m trying to convey, but that’s the best option i have so far, thank you
© 2008 Manuel M. Ramos CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Because I’m a writer, when one of my friends can’t think of the right word for what they’re trying to say, they turn to me. “You’re a writer. What’s the word I’m looking for?”
Hell if I know. What do I look like? A dictionary?
God’s honest truth: as a writer, I can never find the right word. This may surprise you. I know it surprises many of my friends. Well, you’d think I would know the right word for each job, judging from my writing skill. But in reality, my vocabulary sucks. I usually know the right word exists. I know I’ve heard it before, or read it before. It’s on the tip of my tongue. But I simply can’t think of what it is.
This is as true of English as it is of other languages that I (almost) know. I usually have little trouble with grammar, even in foreign languages, because grammar is based on a relatively small number of general rules that apply to most words and phrases and sentences, with only a few exceptions. But vocabulary, that’s 228,132 exceptions (and no real rules at all).
No wonder I never write unless I have a thesaurus on hand.
Well, that’s not completely true. When you write your first draft, you should rarely (if ever) go to a thesaurus, because you want to get your ideas out onto the page as quickly as you can. You think much faster than you can speak or type, so you want to get those thoughts flowing and then let them spill out as smoothly as possible. So you pick the first word or phrase that comes to mind, no matter how stupid it sounds, knowing that you’ll be going back and fixing it later (if you even decide to keep it).
It’s during the “later,” during the editing process, that a thesaurus really comes in handy. Because that’s when you rearrange your writing, compact your sentences, put your thoughts in a better order, and choose stronger words and phrases with which to express them.
Here are 7 online tools that I’ve used, and how you can use them to help you find the right word.
But first, a word of warning. You want to be careful not to use these tools to dig up flowery or obscure words that ought to remain buried. Your goal is to say what you want to say in the strongest, most concise form possible. So you want to find strong, specific verbs and nouns, and you want to use strong, specific imagery. Your goal is to paint a picture, not to sound like you have your nose constantly tilted up into the air. So use these tools wisely, to find the right word for the job.
-
Thesaurus.reference.com has a good online dictionary and thesaurus. (I usually use the built-in Dictionary application on my Mac, though, because it’s readily available and does the job.) You usually know or have already chosen a word close to the one you want to use, and for these instances, a simple thesaurus may be the best tool. So you type that word into the thesaurus and look at the listed synonyms. For any synonym that’s closer to what you want to say, you look up that word also in the thesaurus, and repeat. This way, you construct a list of words that are along the lines of what you want, zeroing in closer and closer to the right word for the job.
-
The OneLook reverse dictionary lets you look up words by their definition. This is also an invaluable tool, which I always seem to be going back to. When you know what the right word means, but you can’t think of a related word, type in the definition into the reverse dictionary, and it will show you a list of words that are related to the concept you’ve expressed.
-
RhymeZone’s related-words search finds words that are semantically related to a word or phrase that you type in. This can be useful if you don’t have a feel for the word you want, but you know you need something better than what you already have. The related-word search allows you to start with a word or concept and go to other words using specific semantic relationships, such as synonym/antonym, more-general/more-specific, part-of/contains, used in the same context, or defined-by.
-
Lexical FreeNet (lexfn.com) also looks up related words, based on a number of semantic relationships. It includes biographical relationships. (So you can go from “George Washington” to “commander-in-chief,” for example, or to “Benedict Arnold.”) And it also includes rhyming and anagram relationships, which you can’t disable (or at least the “disable” feature has never worked for me). Lexfn shows all the related words in a long list, by relationship, and allows you to navigate easily from one to the next.
Lexfn can also search for double relationships. That is, it can connect two words together, in two ways: (1) by finding the “connection” paths between two words, linking one word to the next to the next in order to get from one end to the other, showing each path and all the words along it; (2) by finding the “intersection” of two words, all the words related to both within some number of links, listed in a long list. These features can be useful if you want to find a word that’s related in meaning to both of two different concepts.
-
The Historical Dictionary of American Slang at alphaDictionary.com searches for slang terms by meaning, with limits for whatever time period you’re interested in. This of course would be useful if you want to find a vernacular term or phrase used in a particular time period in American history.
-
The alphaDictionary site also has a a list of dictionaries of technical terms organized by field or profession. Such terms usually pop up during research, into whatever field I’m writing about. And when you need to know what a specific word or phrase means in the context of a certain specialty, you need a specialty dictionary or glossary.
-
The American Sandbox Dictionary of Children’s Mispronounced Words can help you with ideas for your younger characters. An online lexicon is “coming soon,” as they say. But for now, they you can search the site using Google, and it’s fun to subscribe to the RSS feed to find out what pluk, smokinatroll, and blockmustard are. Out of the mouths of babes comes funny! Useful for generating ideas for endearing sayings for your children characters.
Again, you don’t want to write from a thesaurus, neither before nor after your first draft. But if you’re like me and just can’t think of the word you know you want to use, tools like this can be invaluable.
Keep writing!
-TImK
What are word choice errors?
Have you ever received an assignment back, and been told that you:
| Yes | No | |
| Used the wrong preposition? | ||
| Made a mistake in your”word choice”? | ||
| Used the wrong tone? |
This kind of feedback often indicates that you have made a word choice error. These errors happen for the following reasons:
- Selecting a word with a slightly different range of meaning than your text requires. This often happens when writers select a synonym using a thesaurus or the synonym function in word processing software. Though synonyms have close or related meanings, there are usually some slight differences in the range of meanings that different words have, and the ways they can be used.
- Relying heavily on Google translate or bilingual dictionaries to choose words. Again, these errors result from the fact that when we translate between languages, words may be similar, but not exactly the same.
Finding the correct word is difficult because they are usually not fixed grammar rules to help make good choices. The good news is that there are tools available to help select the right word. By understanding how different resources can work together, you will have additional tools to help you select the right word for your purpose.
- General dictionaries
When you use a thesaurus or synonym finder to choose a word, a good additional step is to look up the new synonym you discovered in a general dictionary. This will help you to ensure that its meaning fits correctly in the context of the sentence you are writing.
2. Bilingual dictionaries
A bilingual dictionary is designed to help you find the equivalent word to the word you know in your mother tongue. It assists you when you don’t yet know the English word to express the concept you are trying to write. Often, bilingual writers will use these as their primary dictionary tool. This can create some problems because each language has different ways of structuring how concepts are expressed. Relying too much on a bilingual dictionary can lead to word choices that sound unnatural, likely because they reflect how a concept is expressed in your mother tongue, rather than in English. When you use a bilingual dictionary to find a word, it is helpful to check at least one other source to confirm that this word is the best choice.
3. English learner’s dictionaries
A learner’s dictionary is one of the best tools to have for writing English. ESL Learner’s dictionaries have been published for learners of different abilities; for university writing, you will want an Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Learner’s dictionaries are different from dictionaries that are designed for mother tongue English speakers because:
- They define words simply and clearly.
- They include example sentences that show how the word is used correctly.
Though a learner’s dictionary is designed for a non-native speaker of English, many native speakers find these to be a helpful resource because of the additional grammatical information they contain. If you are a native speaker of English, you still may want to have this resource as a part of your writing toolkit.
You can use a learner’s dictionary in several ways:
- To look up a word after finding it in a bilingual dictionary, to check that it is truly the best word for what you would like to express.
- To find the meaning of a word you do not yet know.
- To find out how to correctly use a word that you already know the meaning of, but that you are not sure how to write in a sentence. For example, if you are unsure of what preposition typically follows a certain verb in English, the example sentences in a learner’s dictionary might give you that information.
You can access the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary online at http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/
For more explanation of how to use a learner’s dictionary, see the video below.
Apply it!
Try using the resources you have explored in this module to do the following:
- Find out what prepositions go with the verb correlate (or another verb of your choice).
- Find a synonym using a thesaurus or synonym finder. Use one additional resource to determine whether this is the best word to use in your sentence.
-
Help me find the right word…
Hi, I’m looking for a word that means the same or similar to dichotomy/dichotomous/duality, but begins with the prefix “bi-“. I can’t seem to find it in the thesaurus. Can someone help?
-
07-28-2008, 02:18 AM
#2
- Join Date
- Feb 2004
- Location
- USA
- Posts
- 10,884
Originally Posted by music2starr
Hi, I’m looking for a word that means the same or similar to dichotomy/dichotomous/duality, but begins with the prefix “bi-“. I can’t seem to find it in the thesaurus. Can someone help?
Check bifurcate/bifurcated and see if that’s the word you want.
-
07-29-2008, 08:49 AM
#3
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
- Posts
- 4,852
-
I think the word I was looking for was «binary», but I’m not completely sure. What about words that begin with «di-«?
Anway, thanks for the help!
-
07-31-2008, 11:24 AM
#5
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- In town, big city
- Posts
- 1,778
Duality is a useful word here. Dimorphism is also handy, but may be much to big for your purpose (which you haven’t told us, by the way).
Help me find the right word…
Originally Posted by music2starr
TheShadow
Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Dutch
- Home Country
- Belgium
- Current Location
- Belgium
-
#1
Hi,
[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]«At the airport there are Carts >> sitting? laying around? standing? (any better suggestion) <<WHICH ONE everywhere because people just leave them like that at random places»[/FONT]
SoothingDave
VIP Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2009
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- American English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
-
#2
Why not just «there are carts everywhere»?
They wouldn’t be standing or sitting. «Strewn about» maybe.
MikeNewYork
VIP Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2002
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- American English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
-
#3
I agree with Dave about just «everywhere», but «standing» would not be wrong.