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 registries. Although a group of terms can be considered equivalent,
metadata registries store the synonyms at a central location called the preferred data element.
According to
WordNet, a ''synset'' or synonym set is defined as a set of one or more
synonyms
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are ...
that are interchangeable in some context without changing the
truth value of the proposition in which they are embedded.
Example
The following are considered semantically equivalent and form a synonym ring:
foaf
FOAF (an acronym of friend of a friend) is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe themselves. FOAF allows groups of people to describe s ...
:person
gjxdm:Person
niem
NIEM ( ) originated as an XML-based information exchange framework from the United States. NIEM also supports NIEM JSON exchanges. NIEM is currently developinthe NIEM Metamodel and Common Model Formatwhich can be expressed in any data serializa ...
:Person
sumo:Human
cyc:Person
umbel:Person
Note that each data element has two components:
# Namespace prefix, which is a shorthand for the name of the metadata registry
# Data element name, which is the name of the object in each of the distinct metadata registry
Expressing a synonym ring
A synonym ring can be expressed by a series of statements in the
Web Ontology Language (OWL) using the
classEquivalence or the
propertyEquivalence or instance equivalence statement – the
sameAs property.
See also
*
Data Reference Model
*
Metadata
*
Vocabulary-based transformation
*
WordNet
External links
WordNetat
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
Metadata
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