What do I need?

[Marsh]

When I compose a crossword clue I use a thesaurus to look for misleading synonyms.  Unfortunately this involves re-reading many times words I have already rejected.  For example Thesaurus.com has 64 entries containing the word "Answer".  The 1500 words listed include 21 occurrences of "reply", 9 of "response" and so on.  If such lists could be automatically condensed to one occurrence of each word, it would make my hobby easier.
Is there a program that would do this?  If not, what would I need to write such a program myself?  What language should I learn?  My PC has Windows XP.   My current skills are limited to some rusty Atari Basic, even rustier Locomail and Lessons 1-4 of the HMTL Goodies basic course.
Ease of learning and economical software would be of advantage. 

[Tweed]

If you can put all the entries in Microsoft Excel, there is a function that will eliminate duplicates.

[Marsh]

Just testing something out of sight -  "

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[Marsh]

No, that came through as typed