Synset

In metadata a Synonym ring or synset, is a group of data elements that are considered semantically equivalent for the purposes of information retrieval. These data elements are frequently found in different metadata registrys. Although a group of terms can be considered equilivant, metadata registries should store the synonyms at central location called the preferred data element.

A synset is defined as a set of one or more synonyms.

Example of Synonym Ring

The following are considered semantically equivalent and for a synonym ring:

foaf:person
gjxdm:Person
niem:Person
sumo:Human
cyc:Individual

Note that each data element has two components:

1. Namespace prefix which is a shorthand for the name of the metadata registry
2. Data Element name The name of the object in each of the distinct metadata registry

Expression of Synonym Ring

A Synonym Ring can be expressed by a series of statments in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) using the

 sameAs

property, the classequivalence or the propertyEquivalence or instance equivalence statements.

See also

• metadata
• Vocabulary-based transformation
• Data Reference Model
• ANSI/NISO Z39.19-200x
• WordNet

References

• [1] Princton WordNet Home Page