A feature of word processing systems whereby synonyms and antonyms may be displayed on screen and incorporated into the text. Full text retrieval systems may have thesaurus searching as an option whereby terms similar in meaning to those sought will also be located. A thesaurus can be used to define a set of allowed terms for use as keywords during the entry of data into text retrieval systems.
Internet
A file which contains a list of words. Each word in the list is associated with a number of other words semantically similar to it. A thesaurus is normally used by search engines, other search technologies, and word processors.