<html><head> <title>Glossary of WordNet Terminology</title> </head> <body> <h2>Glossary of Terms</h2> <p>In the following definitions "word" is used in place of "word or collocation".</p> <dl> <dt><a name="AdjectiveCluster"></a>adjective cluster</dt> <dd>A group of adjective synsets that are organized around antonymous pairs or triplets. An adjective cluster contains two or more <a href="#HeadSynset">head synsets</a> which represent antonymous concepts. Each head synset has one or more <a href="#SatelliteSynset">satellite synsets</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Attribute"></a>attribute</dt> <dd>A noun for which adjectives express values. Ex: The noun <em>weight</em> is an attribute, for which the adjectives <em>light</em> and <em>heavy</em> express values.</dd> <dt><a name="BaseForm"></a>base form</dt> <dd>The base form of a word or collocation is the form to which inflections are added.</dd> <dt><a name="BasicSynset"></a>basic synset</dt> <dd>Syntactically, same as <a href="#Synset">synset</a>. Term is used to help explain differences in entering synsets in lexicographer files.</dd> <dt><a name="Collocation"></a>collocation</dt> <dd>A collocation in WordNet is a string of two or more words, connected by spaces or hyphens. Examples are: <em>man-eating shark</em>, <em>blue-collar</em>, <em>depend on</em>, <em>line of products</em>. In the database files spaces are represented as underscore (<em>_</em>) characters.</dd> <dt><a name="Coordinate"></a>coordinate</dt> <dd>Coordinate terms are words that have the same <a href="#Hypernym">hypernym</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="CrossClusterPointer"></a>cross-cluster pointer</dt> <dd>A <a href="#SemanticPointer">semantic pointer</a> from one adjective cluster to another.</dd> <dt><a name="Cousin"></a>cousin</dt> <dd>Senses whose <a href="#Hyponyms">hyponyms</a> bear a specific relation to each other.</dd> <dt><a name="DirectAntonym"></a>direct antonyms</dt> <dd>A pair of words between which there is an associative bond built up by co-occurrences. In <a href="#AdjectiveCluster">adjective clusters</a>, direct antonyms appears only in <a href="#HeadSynset">head synsets</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Entailment"></a>entailment</dt> <dd>A verb <em>X</em> entails <em>Y</em> if <em>X</em> cannot be done unless <em>Y</em> is, or has been, done.</dd> <dt><a name="ExceptionList"></a>exception list</dt> <dd>Morphological transformations for words that are not regular and therefore cannot be processed in an algorithmic manner.</dd> <dt><a name="Group"></a>group</dt> <dd>Senses deemed similar by the <a href="#Cousin">cousin</a>, <a href="#Sister">sister</a> or <a href="#Twin">twin</a> relations.</dd> <dt><a name="Gloss"></a>gloss</dt> <dd>Definition and/or example sentences for a synset.</dd> <dt><a name="HeadSynset"></a>head synset</dt> <dd>Synset in an <a href="#AdjectiveCluster">adjective cluster</a> containing at least one word that has a <a href="#DirectAntonym">direct antonym</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Holonym"></a>holonym</dt> <dd>The name of the whole of which the meronym names a part. <em>Y</em> is a holonym of <em>X</em> if <em>X</em> is a part of <em>Y</em>.</dd> <dt><a name="Hypernym"></a>hypernym</dt> <dd>The generic term used to designate a whole class of specific instances. <em>Y</em> is a hypernym of <em>X</em> if <em>X</em> is a (kind of) <em>Y</em>.</dd> <dt><a name="Hyponym"></a>hyponym</dt> <dd>The specific term used to designate a member of a class. <em>X</em> is a hyponym of <em>Y</em> if <em>X</em> is a (kind of) <em>Y</em>.</dd> <dt><a name="IndirectAntonym"></a>indirect antonym</dt> <dd>An adjective in a <a href="#SatelliteSynset">satellite synset</a> that does not have a <a href="#DirectAntonym">direct antonym</a> has an indirect antonyms via the direct antonym of the <a href="#HeadSynset">head synset</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Lemma"></a>lemma</dt> <dd>lower case ASCII text of word as found in the WordNet database index files.</dd> <dt><a name="LexicalPointer"></a>lexical pointer</dt> <dd>A lexical pointer indicates a relation between words in synsets (word forms).</dd> <dt><a name="Monosemous"></a>monosemous</dt> <dd>Having only one sense in a syntactic category.</dd> <dt><a name="Meronym"></a>meronym</dt> <dd>The name of a constituent part of, the substance of, or a member of something. <em>X</em> is a meronym of <em>Y</em> if <em>X</em> is a part of <em>Y</em>.</dd> <dt><a name="PartOfSpeech"></a>part of speech</dt> <dd>WordNet defines "part of speech" as either noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. Same as <a href="#SyntacticCategory">syntactic category</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="ParticipialAdjective"></a>participial adjective</dt> <dd>An adjective that is derived from a verb.</dd> <dt><a name="Pertainym"></a>pertainym</dt> <dd>A relational adjective. Adjectives that are pertainyms are usually defined by such phrases as "of or pertaining to" and do not have antonyms. A pertainym can point to a noun or another pertainym.</dd> <dt><a name="Polysemous"></a>polysemous</dt> <dd>Having more than one sense in a syntactic category.</dd> <dt><a name="PolysemyCount"></a>polysemy count</dt> <dd>Number of senses of a word in a syntactic category, in WordNet.</dd> <dt><a name="Postnominal"></a>postnominal</dt> <dd>A postnominal adjective occurs only immediately following the noun that it modifies.</dd> <dt><a name="Predicative"></a>predicative</dt> <dd>An adjective that can be used only in predicate positions. If <em>X</em> is a predicate adjective, it can be used in such phrases as "it is <em>X</em>".</dd> <dt><a name="Prenominal"></a>prenominal</dt> <dd>An adjective that can occur only before the noun that it modifies.</dd> <dt><a name="SatelliteSynset"></a>satellite synset</dt> <dd>Synset in an adjective <a href="#Cluster">cluster</a> representing a concept that is similar in meaning to the concept represented by its <a href="#HeadSynset">head synset</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="SemanticConcordance"></a>semantic concordance</dt> <dd>A textual corpus (Brown Corpus) and a lexicon (WordNet) so combined that every substantive word in the text is linked to its appropriate sense in the lexicon via a <a href="#SemanticTag">semantic tag</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="SemanticTag"></a>semantic tag</dt> <dd>A pointer from a text file to a specific sense of a word in the WordNet database. A semantic tag in a semantic concordance is represented by a <a href="#SenseKey">sense key</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="SemanticPointer"></a>semantic pointer</dt> <dd>A semantic pointer indicates a relation between synsets (word meanings).</dd> <dt><a name="Sense"></a>sense</dt> <dd>A meaning of a word in WordNet. Each sense of a word is in a different <a href="#Synset">synset</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="SenseKey"></a>sense key</dt> <dd>Information necessary to find a sense in the WordNet database. A sense key combines a <a href="#Lemma">lemma</a> field and codes for the synset type, lexicographer id, lexicographer file number, and information about a satellite's <a href="#HeadSynset">head synset</a>, if required. See <a href="/man/senseidx">senseidx</a> for a description of the format of a sense key.</dd> <dt><a name="Sister"></a>sister</dt> <dd>Matching strings that are both the immediate <a href="#Hyponym">hyponyms</a> of the same <a href="#Superordinate">superordinate</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Subordinate"></a>subordinate</dt> <dd>See: <a href="#Hyponym">hyponym</a>.</dd> <dt><a name="Superordinate"></a>superordinate</dt> <dd>Same as <a href="#Hypernym">hypernym</a>.</dd> <dt><a href="Synset"></a>synset</dt> <dd>A synonym set; a set of words that are interchangeable in some context.</dd> <dt><a href="Troponym"></a>troponym</dt> <dd>A verb expressing a specific manner elaboration of another verb. <em>X</em> is a troponym of <em>Y</em> if <em>to X</em> is <em>to Y</em> in some manner.</dd> <dt><a href="Twin"></a>twin</dt> <dd>Synsets having at least three words in common.</dd> <dt><a href="UniqueBeginner"></a>unique beginner</dt> <dd>A noun synset with no <a href="#Superordinate">superordinate</a>.</dd> </dl>