for an interesting 3-D visual representation of relationships between words in the english language, check out ThinkMap Visual Thesaurus — once i used up my free searches, i subscribed to an annual subscription.
looking up a word creates an interactive visual map with your word in the center of the display, connected to related words and meanings
here is my thinkmap for the word cool — searched in free association mode which gives the “most extreme visual thesaurus experience!”
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the visual thesaurus also supports several other languages in beta, including french — here is my search for froid:
connections between similar terms are drawn with dashed+solid lines and colour-coded dots indicate whether the related terms are nouns, verbs, adverbs, or adjectives. there are many settings to play around with, and there is a mesmerizing, kewl feature called auto-pilot where you can watch the thesaurus auto-randomly jump from word to word.
not just for funsies, this tool can be used to illustrate concepts and keywords in an information literacy context:
get them to think about the disconnect between keywords they choose based on a specific definition, and the search engine technologies that do not have the ability to differentiate between various meanings or context. — LibraRonin
