Suppose a speaker is going to attack some principle, some act, some party. He knows that his main theme will be denunciation of something. In the index of a Thesaurus he looks under denunciation, finding two numbers of paragraphs. Turning to the first he has under his eye a group of words all expressing shades of this idea. There are further references to other related terms. Let us look at the first group, taken from Roget's Thesaurus.
MALEDICTON, curse, imprecation, denunciation, execration, anathema, ban, proscription, excommunication, commination, fulmination.
Cursing, scolding, railing, Billingsgate language.
V. To curse, accurse, imprecate, scold, rail, execrate.
To denounce, proscribe, excommunicate, fulminate.
Adj. Cursing, &c., cursed, &c.
THREAT, menace, defiance, abuse, commination, intimidation.
V. To threaten, menace, defy, fulminate; to intimidate.
Adj. Threatening, menacing, minatory, abusive.