inkstains

Yes. Thesaurus, totally useful when you need a word that fits a certain thing like your consonance, or if you're trying to make your iambic pentameter right, or if you know the word you're looking for but just can't remember. But I never never never use a word I haven't heard before. I am quite well read. I'm not saying I know every word that everyone else does, but if I don't know a word, the chance my general readership knows the word is extremely slim. However, some authors don't have that vocabulary. I imagine it's more difficult if you think your audience might know the word but you don't.