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What is this tool?
Features
When is this solution for you?
Get started
Documentation
What is this tool?
The "synonym finder" is an open-source tool that provides a convenient way to collect synonyms and related terms from a given list of words.
According to Merrian Webster dictionary, a synonym is "one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses."
To detect synonyms, the tool consults available online vocabularies, performs syntactic comparisons, and consults the semantic information (relationships) in the online resources.
The tool allows working iteratively, allowing, for example, to "find synonyms of synonyms". It also provides links to the original resources, letting the user further explore the origin of the hits found.
This tool was developed by KU Leuven and the Joint Research Centre in the context of an ELISE funded activity aiming at improving the discoverability of data through the use of synonyms. A report "Using synonyms to better data discoverability" with the applied methodology is available here .
Features
- It connects to different sources that can provide synonyms. The current version of the tool connects to:
- Wordnet (a WordNet dataset is provided in the installation .zip file)
- Wikidata (SPARQL connection)
- DBPedia (SPARQL connection)
- The thesauri provided in the LusTRE framework (through the LusTRE API):
- GEMET
- EUROVOC
- AGRIVOC
- Find synonyms by syntactical comparison of labels
- Find synonyms by using semantic relations present in the given datasets
When is this solution for you?
- If you manage a vocabulary (dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri,...) or have any other list of terms and want to find out what alternative terms are available for your original words.
- If you want to find out if the terms you use can be connected to entries in external vocabularies
- If you want to look up a term in a set of external vocabularies or want to compare how a specific term is presented in the different vocabularies.
- If you are not familiar with vocabulary structures, the "synonyms finder" provides a simple user interface to start exploring available online resources.
- If you are an expert, it gives you a straightforward way to combine results from different heterogeneous vocabularies and thesauri.
Get started
Download the tool here
Check out the quick guide to use the tool
Documentation
- The synonyms finder tool has no specific hardware requirements, but a stable internet connection is needed to access the different synonym resources.
- The tool is delivered as a self-containing compressed file (.zip). Unzip it at your selected location and run the Synonyms_tool.exe executable.
- The "Get started" instructions provide all information needed to use the tool. Different elements of the tool provide tooltips when hovering the mouse over it.
- Customisation (i.e. the option to add additional synonym resources) might be added in a future version.
Reuse example
The methodology showcased in the report "Using synonyms to improve the discovery of spatial data resources" involved the usage of the synonym finder tool. Find here the resulting datasets and synonyms terms found.
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