Synonyms

The synonyms feature allows you to define search terms that should be considered equivalent. For eg: when you define a synonym for sneaker as shoe, searching for sneaker will now return all records with the word shoe in them, in addition to records with the word sneaker.

Typesense supports two types of synonyms:

One-way synonyms: Defining the words iphone and android as one-way synonyms of smart phone will cause searches for smart phone to return documents containing iphone or android or both.
Multi-way synonyms: Defining the words blazer, coat and jacket as multi-way synonyms will cause searches for any one of those words (eg: coat) to return documents containing at least one of the words in the synonym set (eg: records with blazer or coat or jacket are returned).

:::tip Precedence When using Synonyms and Overrides together, Overrides are handled first since the rules can contain instructions to replace the query. Synonyms will then work on the modified query. :::

Create or update a synonym

Multi-way synonym

synonym = {
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}

// Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections('products').synonyms().upsert('coat-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:PHP>

php

$synonym = [
  "synonyms" => ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
];

# Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
$client->collections['products']->synonyms->upsert('coat-synonyms', $synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Python>

synonym = {
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}

# Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections['products'].synonyms.upsert('coat-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:Ruby>

synonym = {
  "synonyms" => ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}

# Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections['products'].synonyms.upsert('coat-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:Dart>

dart

final synonym = {
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
};

// Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
await client.collection('products').synonyms.upsert('coat-synonyms', synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Java>

java

SearchSynonymSchema synonym = new SearchSynonymSchema();
synonym.addSynonymsItem("blazer").addSynonymsItem("coat").addSynonymsItem("jacket");

// Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections("products").synonyms().upsert("coat-synonyms", synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Swift>

swift

let synonymSchema = SearchSynonymSchema(synonyms: ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"])

// Creates/updates a synonym called `coat-synonyms` in the `products` collection
let (searchSynonym, response) = try await client.collection(name: "products").synonyms().upsert(id: "coat-synonyms", synonymSchema)

</template> <template v-slot:Shell>

bash

curl "http://localhost:8108/collections/products/synonyms/coat-synonyms" -X PUT \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" -d '{
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}'

</template> </Tabs>

Sample Response

json

{
  "id": "coat-synonyms",
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}

</template> </Tabs>

One-way synonym

synonym = {
  "root": "smart phone",
  "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"]
}

// Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections('products').synonyms().upsert('smart-phone-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:PHP>

php

$synonym = [
  'root' => 'smart phone',
  'synonyms' => ['iphone', 'android'],
];

// Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
$client->collections['products']->synonyms->upsert('smart-phone-synonyms', $synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Python>

synonym = {
  "root": "smart phone",
  "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"]
}

# Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections('products').synonyms.upsert('smart-phone-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:Ruby>

synonym = {
  "root": "smart phone",
  "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"]
}

# Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections('products').synonyms.upsert('smart-phone-synonyms', synonym)

</template> <template v-slot:Dart>

dart

final synonym = {
  "root": "smart phone",
  "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"]
};

// Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
await client.collection('products').synonyms.upsert('smart-phone-synonyms', synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Java>

java

SearchSynonymSchema synonym = new SearchSynonymSchema();
synonym.addSynonymsItem("iphone").addSynonymsItem("android");
synonym.root("smart phone");

// Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
client.collections("products").synonyms().upsert("smart-phone-synonyms", synonym);

</template> <template v-slot:Swift>

swift

let synonymSchema = SearchSynonymSchema(
  root: "smart phone",
  synonyms: ["iphone", "android"]
)

// Creates/updates a synonym called `smart-phone-synonyms` in the `products` collection
let (searchSynonym, response) = try await client.collection(name: "products").synonyms().upsert(id: "smart-phone-synonyms", synonymSchema)

</template> <template v-slot:Shell>

bash

curl "http://localhost:8108/collections/products/synonyms/smart-phone-synonyms" -X PUT \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" -d '{
    "root": "smart phone",
    "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"]
}'

</template> </Tabs>

Sample Response

json

{
  "id":"smart-phone-synonyms",
  "root":"smart phone",
  "synonyms": ["iphone", "android"],
  "locale": "",
  "symbols_to_index": []
}

</template> </Tabs>

Definition

PUT ${TYPESENSE_HOST}/collections/:collection/synonyms/:id

Arguments

Parameter	Required	Description
synonyms	yes	Array of words that should be considered as synonyms.
root	no	For 1-way synonyms, indicates the root word that words in the synonyms parameter map to.
locale	no	Locale for the synonym, leave blank to use the standard tokenizer.
symbols_to_index	no	By default, special characters are dropped from synonyms. Use this attribute to specify which special characters should be indexed as is.

Retrieve a synonym

We can retrieve a single synonym.

client.collections('products').synonyms('coat-synonyms').retrieve()

</template> <template v-slot:PHP>

php

$client->collections['products']->synonyms['coat-synonyms']->retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Python>

client.collections('products').synonyms['coat-synonyms'].retrieve

</template> <template v-slot:Ruby>

client.collections('products').synonyms['coat-synonyms'].retrieve

</template> <template v-slot:Dart>

dart

await client.collection('products').synonym('coat-synonyms').retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Java>

java

SearchSynonym searchSynonym = client.collections("products").synonyms("coat-synonyms").retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Swift>

swift

let (searchSynonym, response) = try await client.collection(name: "products").synonyms().retrieve(id: "coat-synonyms")

</template> <template v-slot:Shell>

bash

curl -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" "http://localhost:8108/collections/products/synonyms"

</template> </Tabs>

Sample Response

json

{
  "id": "coat-synonyms",
  "root":"",
  "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
}

</template> </Tabs>

Definition

GET ${TYPESENSE_HOST}/collections/:collection/synonyms/:id

List all synonyms

List all synonyms associated with a given collection.

client.collections('products').synonyms().retrieve()

</template> <template v-slot:PHP>

php

$client->collections['products']->synonyms->retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Python>

client.collections['products'].synonyms.retrieve()

</template> <template v-slot:Ruby>

client.collections['products'].synonyms.retrieve

</template> <template v-slot:Dart>

dart

await client.collection('products').synonyms.retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Java>

java

SearchSynonymsResponse searchSynonymsResponse =  client.collections("products").synonyms().retrieve();

</template> <template v-slot:Swift>

swift

let (searchSynonyms, response) = try await client.collection(name: "products").synonyms().retrieve()

</template> <template v-slot:Shell>

bash

curl -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" \
"http://localhost:8108/collections/products/synonyms"

</template> </Tabs>

Sample Response

json

{
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "id": "coat-synonyms",
      "root": "",
      "synonyms": ["blazer", "coat", "jacket"]
    }
  ]
}

</template> </Tabs>

Definition

GET ${TYPESENSE_HOST}/collections/:collection/synonyms

Delete a synonym

Delete a synonym associated with a collection.

client.collections('products').synonyms('coat-synonyms').delete()

</template> <template v-slot:PHP>

php

$client->collections['products']->synonyms['coat-synonyms']->delete();

</template> <template v-slot:Python>

client.collections['products'].synonyms['coat-synonyms'].delete()

</template> <template v-slot:Ruby>

client.collections['products'].synonyms['coat-synonyms'].delete

</template> <template v-slot:Dart>

dart

await client.collection('products').synonym('coat-synonyms').delete();

</template> <template v-slot:Java>

java

SearchSynonym searchSynonym = client.collections("products").synonyms("coat-synonyms").delete();

</template> <template v-slot:Swift>

swift

let (searchSynonym, response) = try await client.collection(name: "products").synonyms().delete(id: "coat-synonyms")

</template> <template v-slot:Shell>

bash

curl "http://localhost:8108/collections/products/synonyms/coat-synonyms" -X DELETE \
-H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}"

</template> </Tabs>

Sample Response

json

{
  "id": "coat-synonyms"
}

</template> </Tabs>

Definition

DELETE ${TYPESENSE_HOST}/collections/:collection/synonyms/:id