WordNet Explorer

explore

  1. To look up a word’s senses, definitions, examples, and synonyms.See Word Explorer.
  2. To measure how close two words are, by meaning and by everyday use.See Similarity.
  3. To read a passage for its parts of speech, word frequencies, and recurring ideas.See Text Analysis.
  4. To map the broader and narrower terms around a word.See Semantic Network.
  5. To trace the forms a word takes and the words derived from it.See Word Forms.

A free toolkit for the English lexicon, built on Princeton WordNet, with a JSON API for every tool.

Look up a word

Meaning and usage aren’t the same thing

WordNet places words in a hand-built hierarchy of meanings. Embeddings learn from how words appear in real text. Compare two words and see where the two views agree, and where they don’t.

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Use it from your own code

Every tool has a JSON endpoint. Open these in a browser or call them from a script.

GET/api/synsets/

Every sense of a word, with definitions, examples, lemmas, and relations.

https://www.freesmartphoneapps.com/wordnetexplorer/api/synsets/?word=algorithm
GET/api/similarity/

WordNet scores, an embedding score, and a verdict for two words.

https://www.freesmartphoneapps.com/wordnetexplorer/api/similarity/?word1=coffee&word2=cup
GET/api/network/

A word’s broader and narrower terms as graph nodes and edges.

https://www.freesmartphoneapps.com/wordnetexplorer/api/network/?word=computer&depth=2
POST/api/analyze/

Parts of speech, frequencies, and collocations for a passage of text.

Questions

Why do the WordNet and embedding scores sometimes disagree?

They measure different things. WordNet asks “what kind of thing is this?” using a hand-built hierarchy. Embeddings learn from how words are used together, so they also pick up association. Coffee and cup are different kinds of things but appear together constantly, so the embedding score is much higher. Opposites like hot and cold are flagged as antonyms by WordNet, even though embeddings often rate them as similar.

Are WordNet lemmas just synonyms?

Lemmas are the word forms grouped under one sense (a synset). Lemmas in the same synset are near-synonyms for that particular sense, which is why “bank” the riverside and “bank” the institution have different ones.

Does it handle forms like run, ran, and running?

WordNet stores base forms. Words are lemmatized before lookup, so “running” and “ran” both lead to “run.” Word Forms shows the variants and derived words for any entry.

Can I use it in other apps?

Yes. The JSON endpoints above cover lookups, similarity, networks, and text analysis, and results can be exported as JSON or CSV.