SYNonym (SYN)

Use the synonym operator (SYN) to expand a query to include all the terms that have been defined in a thesaurus as synonyms for the specified term.

Syntax

Syntax	Description
SYN(term[,thes])	Expands a query to include all the terms defined in the thesaurus as synonyms for term.

term

Specify the operand for the synonym operator. term is expanded to include term and all the synonyms defined for term in thes.

thes

Specify the name of the thesaurus used to return the expansions for the specified term. The thes argument is optional and has a default value of DEFAULT. A thesaurus named DEFAULT must exist in the thesaurus tables if you use this default value.

Examples

The following query expression returns all documents that contain the term dog or any of the synonyms defined for dog in the DEFAULT thesaurus:

'SYN(dog)'

Compound Phrases in Synonym Operator

Expansion of compound phrases for a term in a synonym query are returned as AND conjunctives.

For example, the compound phrase temperature + measurement + instruments is defined in a thesaurus as a synonym for the term thermometer. In a synonym query for thermometer, the query is expanded to:

{thermometer} OR ({temperature}&{measurement}&{instruments})

Related Topics

You can browse your thesaurus using procedures in the CTX_THES package.