Search Help

• Type a search word into the Next Word text box and then press Enter or click on the Search button.
• The left hand frame contains an example of the output you see when you enter a search word. The search word was light.
• The search result contains the synsets for different parts of speech i.e. the different meanings of a word.
• All underlined texts are hypertext links.
• Clicking on S: opens a submenu showing the conceptual and lexical relations for that synset. No such submenu is displayed for adverbs.
• Clicking on a relation displays the associated synsets. You can navigate between viewed dictionary entries by clicking on the left and right arrows

Some good words to try are listed in this post, which contains versatile words that can be used as a Noun, Adjective, Verb, or Adverb (NAVA). Light, is an example of such a NAVA (versatile) word.

Introduction

Wordnet is a lexical database of English, in which, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped together into sets of synonyms (synsets). Synsets are linked by conceptual and lexical relations. There are a total of 117,659 synsets in wordnet 3.0, each expressing a distinct concept. Six types of relationship are found in Wordnet.

Hypernyms (Hyponyms)

Defines an IS-A relationship between nouns. For example:

• Honda IS-A Car (honda is a hyponym of car)
• Car IS-A Vehicle (car is a hyponym of vehicle)

The reverse relationship is expressed as:

• Car is a hypernym of Honda
• Vehicle is a hypernym of Car

Meronyms (Holonyms)

Defines a PART-OF (member) relationship between nouns. The opposite of a meronym (part) is a holonym (the name of the whole that contains the part). For example:

• tire PART-OF car (tire is a meronym of car)
• steering wheel PART-OF car (steering wheel is a meronym of car)

The reverse relationship is expressed as:

• car contains a tire (car is a holonym of tire)
• car contains a steering wheel (car is a holonym of steering wheel)

Troponyms

A verb expressing a specific way of doing something - a WAY-OF relationship. There is no known opposite to troponym. For example:

• stroll WAY-OF walk (stroll is a troponym of walk)
• amble WAY-OF walk (amble is a troponym of walk)
• walk WAY-OF move (walk is a troponym of move)

The reverse relationship is expressed as:

• move is accomplished by walking
• walk is accomplished by strolling
• walk is accomplished by ambling

Antonyms (synonyms)

Defines polar opposites between adjectives.

Pertainyms

Adjectives that are derived from Nouns. For example:

• criminal pertains to crime

Coordinate Terms

Nouns that share hypernyms with other nouns. Nouns and verbs that share the same hyponym. A car is a type of vehicle and a truck is a type of vehicle. Car and truck are therefore coordinate terms.