As an exercise, I am going thorough I paper I wrote and trying to replace all (or most) adjectives in the form of "very + adjective" with a word. I feel that if done good this would greatly improve my writing.
For example "very small " -> "negligible" . Of course the correct substitution depends on the context.
My point is, where can I find a list of appropriate words?
Searching for "synonimous small" for example does not work, because I want the "very" to be emphasized.
Thank you!
Best Answer
You want to use a thesaurus, and you've made an erroneous assumption in the body of your question:
Actually, looking at a thesaurus will work, because many synonyms listed for "bland" words will often emphasize the "very" part.
For example Collins has a thesaurus; looking under small shows quite a few words that connote "very small," including the one you list:
The same goes for the synonyms of big; many of these mean "very big" – either in size, or in importance:
and most of the synonyms for cold seem to mean "very cold":
So, open up that thesaurus! I'm sure you'll find that
very big book to be very helpfulenormous tome to be beneficial.