Zing can expand search results with synonyms

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated May 5, 2025
  • 1 minute to read

    • Expand search results to include additional search terms.

    By default, Zing includes a sample synonym dictionary consisting of a list of synonym sets (synsets). Zing supports two types of synonym sets.
    Table 1. Synonym set types
    Synonym set type Description Example
    Synonym list A synonym list is a list of words separated by commas. When a search uses any word from the list, Zing expands the search to include all words in the list. Cyber,Internet,Cybercafe
    Synonym map A synonym map is two word lists separated by the equal and greater than characters => . When a search uses any word from the list on the left, Zing expands the search to include all words from the list on the right. When a search uses a word from the list on the right, Zing doesn't expand the search to include terms from the list on the left. IOT,Internet of Things=>Chip,Nest thermostat,RFID,IOT

    Search results, synonym expansion and weighting

    In search results, documents containing the original search keywords have a higher score than documents containing the search synonyms. For example, documents with the search keyword IOT have a higher score than documents with the synonym Internet of Things.
    • One-way synonym expansion to/from multiple terms (blork, cork => malork, elastic) works as expected. Blork and cork both expand to malork and elastic.
    • Multi-level one-way expansion (blork => cork => malork) doesn't work transitively. Neither blork nor cork expands to malork.
    • Multi-level one-way expansion split between multiple synonym set records (blork => cork)(cork => malork) doesn't work transitively. Only cork expands to malork, blork only expands to cork but not malork.

    By default, synonyms don't use the same weight as regular search terms. Synonyms are only weighted at 10% of the default search weight. Additionally, multiple instances of a synonym in a single doc/field don't increase the search weight. The weight of synonyms is controlled by the property glide.ts.synonym.expanded.boost. When this property value = 1, synonyms are weighted equally to normal search terms. 0.5 = 50% weight etc.

    Wildcard characters and synonym matching

    Zing doesn't expand the % and * wildcard characters when looking for synonyms that match your search term. These characters are treated as literal characters when finding matching synonyms. As an example, if you search for issu*, Zing doesn't find synonyms for issue, but it does find synonyms for issu*.