The article examines the scientific methodological foundations of thesauru research of literary texts. To this end, the formation of the concept of thesaurus and the meaning of the thesaurus method, the types of thesaurus dictionary and their main function are analyzed. The importance of the thesaurus research method in the study of literary texts is determined. The research used methods such as systematization, generalization, sorting, and formulation of the material. The article pays special attention to foreign and domestic thesaurus studies, analyzes the types of thesaurus dictionaries and their features. The article compares the thesaurus and a simple dictionary, identifies a number of optimal moments and ineffective aspects of the thesaurus. In the article, the thesaurus is recognized as a special terminological dictionary within a particular subject area, the meanings of which are close to terms (words and phrases) and semantic relations between them and grouped into concepts. The thesaurus analysis method is also an important research method in modern literary science. The thesaurus research method is widely used in the analysis of literary texts, as it allows you to identify semantic connections between words and understand the meaning of a work, helps to analyze and classify words, create dictionaries and lexical databases. The results achieved in the course of the study can be used in thesaurus research, the construction of a thesaurus based on literary texts.