Visuwords™ in a web-based tool that helps you research the meanings of the word, the connection between those meanings and associations with other words and concepts.
Visuwords uses Princeton University’s WordNet (the tool has already been mentioned by me in my post on starting keyword research), an open source database built by University students and language researchers.
Once you enter a word and press “Enter”, the tool generates the map of word meanings and the type of relations those meanings and related concepts have.
The map consists of synsets. A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number of terms or synonyms.
Colors of of the circles represent word classes:
- Blue: noun;
- Green: verb;
- Orange: adjective;
- Red: adverb.
The map thus represents the following relations:
Synonyms are words that can be interchanged in certain contexts and that convey the same idea.
Hyponym (“kind of” or “is an instance of” on the map): a word that is more specific than a base word. The base word on the map is the one that an arrow is coming in.
In the screenshot, “House” is hyponymous with (is “kind of”) “Family” (and “Family” is the base word here):
Meronym (“is a member of”, “is a part of”, “is a substance of” on the map ) a word that names a part of a larger whole; a term that denotes a part of the whole that is denoted by base term.
Antonym: a word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of a base word.
Here are all the relations the map describes:
- … is kind of…
- …is an instance of…
- …is a member of…
- …is a part of…
- …is a substance of…
- …is similar to…
- …pertains to…
- …participate…
- … attribute…
- …opposes…
- …entails…
- …also see…
- …causes…
- topic domain;
- region domain
- usage domain
Overall, I find the tool invaluable for initial topic research and keyword suggestion. Make sure to have it bookmarked!
