WordNet is a
lexical database for the
English language. It groups English
words into sets of
synonyms called
synsets, provides short definitions and usage examples, and records a number of relations among these synonym sets or their members. WordNet can thus be seen as a combination of
dictionary and
thesaurus. While it is accessible to human users via a web browser, its primary use is in automatic
text analysis and
artificial intelligence applications. The
database and
software tools have been released under a
BSD style license and are freely available for download from the WordNet website. Both the lexicographic data (
lexicographer files) and the compiler (
called grind) for producing the distributed database are available.
