Lexicon · The human story of meaning
Synonym
Fully specified name: Synonym (concept)
An alternative term for the same concept in a defined context.
- Scope note
- Similar wording does not establish synonymy.
- Synonyms
- None recorded as true synonyms in this context.
- Monograph
- Thesaurus (planned; brief only)
- External mappings
- None recorded. In W0 no mapping to SNOMED CT® or any external authority is asserted for this entry. A future mapping record will carry source system, identifier, version, relation type, evidence, author, confidence where meaningful, and review state.
- Formal status
- Editorial entry only. It is not part of any released ontology and a prose edit here changes no formal definition.
Draft. This entry is an unreviewed draft. Its sources have not been checked by a named person and no domain reviewer has approved it. Treat every claim as provisional.
Notes
Two terms are synonyms when, in a stated context, they refer to the same Concept and may be substituted without changing what is asserted. The context clause is essential. "Radioligand therapy" and "radionuclide therapy" may be used interchangeably in one clinic and distinguished in another, where the second also covers unsealed sources without a targeting ligand. A terminology that lists them as synonyms without stating the context will be right for some readers and wrong for others.
Similar wording is not evidence. Abbreviations, spelling variants, and translations are often true synonyms; near-neighbors in a text corpus often are not. Automated term extraction tends to propose synonyms on the basis of co-occurrence, which is exactly the inference the scope note forbids without review. In SNOMED CT, descriptions attached to one concept play the role of synonyms, with one marked preferred per language context; in a Thesaurus the same relationship appears as a "use" or "use for" link between a non-preferred and a preferred term. NucLex lists synonyms on an entry only when they are true synonyms in the entry's stated context; loosely related terms go under related entries instead.