It is a truism that English is now a world language. In this thesaurus, particular care has been taken to include synonyms from every variety of English; and when these are exclusively or very strongly associated with a region of the world they are labelled as such.
The main regional standards are British (abbreviated to Brit.), North American (N. Amer.), Australian and New Zealand (Austral./NZ), South African (S. African), Indian (in the sense of the variety of English found throughout the subcontinent), and West Indian (W. Indian). If a finer distinction is apparent, more precise labelling may be used, as with beer parlour, a Canadian synonym for bar.
Scottish, Irish, and Northern English are varieties within the British Isles containing distinctive vocabulary items of their own. The main synonyms found as regional terms of this kind are entered and labelled accordingly.
The term for something found mainly or exclusively in a particular country or region (although it may be mentioned in any variety of English) is identified by an indication such as ‘(in the Caribbean)’. An example is key (as a synonym for island).
Many regionally restricted terms are informal, rather than being part of the standard language. Writers in the northern hemisphere in search of local colour may be delighted to learn that an Australian synonym for sordid is scungy, while Australian writers may find it equally useful to be given the equivalent British terms as manky and grotty.
Words that are used in English but still generally regarded as foreign are labelled with their language of origin. For example, among the synonyms for hotel are: French pension, auberge; Spanish posada, parador; Portuguese pousada; Italian pensione; German Gasthaus.