Synonym Lists

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1407a adds basic support for synonym lists.

To create a Synonym List:

• Create a text file: Synonyms.txt in %APPDATA%\Everything
  (Synonyms-1.5a.txt for the alpha version)
• Open this file in your text editor.
• For each line, add a semicolon (;) delimited list of Synonyms.
• For example:

  Code: Select all

  CO2;CO₂
  and;'n;&
  shared;sharing;share
  license;licence
  color;colour
  kansas;KA
  

• Save changes to your Synonyms.txt
• Exit Everything (File -> Exit)
• Restart Everything.

Searching for

CO2

will now match filenames containing

CO2

or

CO₂

Searching for

and

will now match filenames containing

and

or

'n

or

&

Synonym lookup is case sensitive.
The lookup matches the whole word (not partial words)

CO2

will match

CO₂

However,

co2

will not match

CO₂

The Synonyms.txt format is CSV.
Use double quotes (") to escape ; or ,



You cannot substitute search modifiers or search functions.
substitution only occurs for normal searches (eg: doesn't apply to regex)

The following modifiers work with synonyms:
case:
diacritics:
path:
wholewords:
prefix:
suffix:
ignore-punctuation:
ignore-whitespace:

Synonyms are not supported with any other modifiers (regex:, whole:, etc..)

Modifiers to not apply to synonym lookup. Synonym lookup is always case sensitive.
Modifiers are applied after the synonym expansion.
case:CO2 => case:CO2 | case:CO₂



Synonyms can be used with functions, for example:
content:CO2



Use double quotes (

"

) to escape words you do not want replaced with synonym expansion.

For example, if you have the synonym:

dance;dancing

and you want to match filenames containing dancing (not necessarily dance), search for:

"dancing"

[therube]

(sort of a ramble...
i've not thought about content:)


so what was the original request? NO2 = no2 (fancily)...
(oh, co2, carbon dioxide vs. no2, nitrogen dioxide. had i used n2o, well that would have been funny)


Synonym Lists are -<instance> based.
(only noting cause i'd forgotten that, at first)

syn:, is my synonym for synonym


thoughts... maybe a "global" syn: table, in addition to <Instance-name>
based syn: table. so you could have a global, & then you could also
have syn: that are Instance based... that wouldn't make sense though,
would it? cause then you'd have to have the ability to exclude the
global table...

as is, syn: could be a (somewhat) replacement for grouping < group | ing >

having the ability to use; ww: case: nopath: <whatever they're called> would be nice

syn separator-char (seemingly) could be , or ; - though above only mentions ;
but, both , & ; are legal filename characters, so maybe it should be | ?

you might want a syn like < ; -) | wink >, which you cannot do, & is "invalid"

• wink;;-)
  wink,;-)

an "invalid" syn: is IGNORED entirely when searched for - ALL results are returned

• syn: wink,;-)
  search: wink
  result: ALL results are returned, as if you had not typed anything into the Searchbar
  also: nonetheless, these invalid "terms" are embolden

• result: tWINKle tWINKle little star.mp3 & Wawusho Kubani - (Who Were You Talking to-).mp3

actually, in the /search/ you could limit things by using ww: or whatnot...
syn no2;claudia (.with. !PUNC enabled)
then in a search of ww:claudia it would find
prelude no2.mp3 & Putumayo - Coffee Lands - 02 - Soltarlo (Colombia) - Claudia Gomez.mp3
but would not find
Reign Ghost - Feat Lynda Squires - 01 - Long Day Journey No2 - 3.03.mp3
but not
00-the_black_keys-el_camino-2011.m3u
(probably not a good example, but no-2, even with !PUNC is not found by; ww:no2, where no2 is syn
- i have to revisit the CASE case too...
"Synonym lookup is case sensitive"... i've got to think about that...)

in any case, one may want only part of a search to be ww: & not the entirety
syn:

• Arizona;AZ
  Kansas;KA
  Maryland;MD

so a search of ww:kansas
finds

• 02 Ka Pya Chi.mp3
  03 - Procol Harum - The Devil Came From Kansas.mp3

but not

• Melanie Safka - The saddest thing.mp3

(if a syn: could be ww:'d, ww:KA,
then what should a search of 'ww:KA' return?

would that be ww:ww:KA, which would be KA?

-

ww:kansas returns 'kansas'
noww:kansas returns both 'kansas' & arkansas
so...
noww: is the same as if you had not typed ww: at all...


syn: bomb,"wake up"
search: bomb
search: wake up
search: "wake up"


"quotes" are allowed
syn: badfinger;"sweet tu"
syn: winehouse;"wake up"
search: winehouse
finds: amy_winehouse-wake_up_alone.mp3 (winehouse)
finds: Amy Winehouse - Wake Up Alone.mp3 (winehouse, wake up)
finds: Amy Winehouse - wake-up-alone.mp3 (winehouse, wake-up)
search: "wake up" (with actual quotes)
finds: Amy Winehouse - Wake Up Alone.mp3 (winehouse, wake up)
finds: Amy Winehouse - wake-up-alone.mp3 (winehouse, wake-up)


syn: :: will cause anything that follows the :: to act as a REMARK

• syn: timebomb::"wake up"
  - "wake up" is simply ignored in relationship to the /syn:/, though is found is a /search/

syn: ,, within a syn: will cause any syn: terms to be IGNORED in relationship to the /search/
syn: ;; within a syn: will cause any syn: terms to be IGNORED in relationship to the /search/
syn: ,; within a syn: will cause any syn: terms to be IGNORED in relationship to the /search/
syn: ;, within a syn: will cause any syn: terms to be IGNORED in relationship to the /search/

• syn: starlight,,shipwreck
  search: starlight
  result: ALL files are found (including, Prince of the Starlight.mp3)
  search: shipwreck
  result: ALL files are found (including, The Great Shipwreck Of Life.mp3)

syn: "terms" - within a syn:, terms with a <space> will be treated as a literal

• syn: wink:wake up
  search: wink
  result: Wake Up Alone.mp3
  - but not, The_Wake-Up_Bomb.mp3 (where otherwise codepoints would have found it)

syn: "quotes" - syn: "terms" can be "quoted" & are also treated as a literal (with actual quotes)
syn: "quoted terms" - will find all the term synonyms
or
syn: unquoted terms - will not find all term synonyms - unless the "Search" is "quoted", in which case it will

• syn: wink:wake up
  search: wake up
  result: Wake Up Alone.mp3
  - but not, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.mp3
  
  syn: wink:wake up
  search: "wake up"
  result: Wake Up Alone.mp3 & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.mp3
  
  syn: wink:"wake up"
  search: "wake up"
  result: Wake Up Alone.mp3 & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.mp3

syn: "invalid terms" - are ignored

• syn: kansas;ww:KA;timebomb
  search: kansas
  result: Procol Harum - The Devil Came From Kansas.mp3 & Timebomb (Live - Jimmy Echo Vocal).mp3
  - but not Glenn Miller - iknoWWhy.mp3 nor Xenomania-KommerTillbaKA.mp3

---

as an aside, back around .1230a, i had a thought - which i never mentioned here:

SYN:

synonyms

some sort of temporary feature where you can set up "pairs"
<brasil | brazil>
if SYN: is enabled brasil also find brazil & vice versa

<grosse | groBe>

likewise, you should be able to assign a shortcut to a syn, so:
bz: <brasil | brazil>

so a search for: rainforest bz:
finds: rainforest <brasil | brazil>

heh.
i guess that's what BOOKMARKS are for!
guess i ought to see how that works

also, Can I set up a synonym for a search term?

[void]

I have had plenty of requests for synonym support.

CO2

is essentially a search for:

CO2 | CO₂

CO2

already matches

CO₂

without synonym support.
It's only required if you match diacritics, which some languages prefer.



Synonym Lists are instance-based to keep things simple.
I would like to avoid merging synonym lists.
But maybe this could be added in a future release.

as is, syn: could be a (somewhat) replacement for grouping < group | ing >

It's rather limited, you cannot substitute complex searches.
Only simple words.

Use macros to make searches shorter.



The synonym list format is CSV.
Items can be delimited with

,

or

;

Use double quotes (") to escape , or ;

For example:

Code: Select all

wink;";-)"

You can also escape double quotes with double double quotes while in double quotes: (sorry, bit of a mouthful)

Code: Select all

quote;""""

quote

would then match

“

and

”

result: ALL results are returned, as if you had not typed anything into the Searchbar

I will add a rule that synonym words cannot be empty.
This will fix the ;; issues and the trailing ; matching all files.

syn no2;claudia (.with. !PUNC enabled)
Reign Ghost - Feat Lynda Squires - 01 - Long Day Journey No2 - 3.03.mp3

ww:claudia will find the above as it contains No2.
The synonym lookup is case sensitive, but the resulting search is not. (case:claudia would not find the file because it's essentially a case:claudia | case:no2 search)
ww:Claudia would not work because Claudia is not in the synonym list. -you could add it to your synonym list as: Claudia;claudia;no2

So you could have different synonym lookups for different case, eg:

Code: Select all

foo;bar
FOO;baz

(if a syn: could be ww:'d, ww:KA,
then what should a search of 'ww:KA' return?

would that be ww:ww:KA, which would be KA?

It would be

ww:ww:KA

which will match nothing. (the second ww: is treated literally)

[tuska]

Everything 1.5.0.1407a adds basic support for synonym lists.

Searching for ... will now match filenames ...

I find the “Synonym List” very useful!  

Would it be possible in the future to use this for file contents as well?
I would really appreciate that.

[therube]

Use double quotes (") to escape , or ;

wink;";-)"

If I remember correctly, the issue with that was, on the Search end, in order to match the synonym, your search had to include the quotes.

(without looking)

search: wink
result: twinkle twinkle.mp3 & 'you think you're funny ;-).png'

search: ;-)
result: 'you think you're funny ;-).png'

search: ";-)"
result: twinkle twinkle.mp3 & 'you think you're funny ;-).png'

[void]

I find the “Synonym List” very useful!

Thank you for the feedback.
If the Synonym List is found to be useful, I will consider supplying localized defaults.

Would it be possible in the future to use this for file contents as well?

Yes, synonyms work with content: and other functions.
(edit: updated documentation above)

If I remember correctly, the issue with that was, on the Search end, in order to match the synonym, your search had to include the quotes.

The search does not need to match the quotes.
Using the synonym

wink;";-)"

and searching for

;-)

will match

wink

.

[tuska]

Yes, synonyms work with content: and other functions.

Hi,

The list of synonyms seems to have partially trouble handling German umlauts (öäüÖÄÜ) and special character (ß):

1.5.0.1407a (x64) -> Content -> [x] Index file content -> Include only files: ... *.ion; ...
Content in the hidden file “descript.ion”.

D:\zzz\descript.ion

Code: Select all

parent:D:\zzz content:Dateiausschlüsse		OK, found
parent:D:\zzz content:Dateiausschluesse		NOT found

D:\Daten\descript.ion

Code: Select all

parent:D:\Daten content:prüfen			OK, found
parent:D:\Daten content:pruefen			NOT found

C:\Everything\Synonyms.txt

Code: Select all

license;licence
color;colour
Ä;AE;Ae;ä;ae
Ö;OE;Oe;ö;oe
Ü;UE;Ue;ü;ue
ß;ss

 

2026-03-25_Synonym List_German umlauts (öäüÖÄÜ) and special character (ß).png (42.78 KiB) Viewed 1661 times

 
Please check.
Thank you!

[void]

Synonym lookup matches the whole word.

I have updated the documentation.

There's no Dateiausschlüsse or Dateiausschluesse in your synonym list.
You would have to add Dateiausschlüsse and Dateiausschluesse to your synonym list, for example:

Code: Select all

license;licence
color;colour
Dateiausschlüsse;Dateiausschluesse

When added, searching for:

content:Dateiausschluesse

would match files containing Dateiausschlüsse.

So matching ü with ue anywhere in a word is not really what the Synonym list is designed to do.

[tuska]

Synonym lookup matches the whole word.
So matching ü with ue anywhere in a word is not really what the Synonym list is designed to do.

Ah, I see.

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[therube]

Search: wink

• syn: wink;;-)
  ;-) - 38 items
  wink - 0 items

• syn: wink;";-)"
  - 68 items, both ;-) & wink

• syn: wink,;-)
  - 374,236 items (IOW, it is a if no Search term was entered - both wink & ;-) are ignored)

• syn: wink,";-)"
  - 68 items, both ;-) & wink

Search: ;-)

• syn: wink;;-)
  ;-) - 38 items
  wink - 0 items

• syn: wink;";-)"
  - 68 items, both ;-) & wink

• syn: wink,;-)
  ;-) - 38 items
  wink - 0 items
  (note this is different from above, with a search term of 'wink')

• syn: wink,";-)"
  - 68 items, both ;-) & wink

(in all cases, both wink, when it turned up, & ;-) are emboldened - & even in the ignored case
68 it the total number of items; 38 ;-) & 30 wink)

[void]

Synonyms are no longer applied when quoted with Everything 1.5.0.1414b.

For example, if you have the synonym:

dance;dancing

and you want to match filenames containing dancing (not necessarily dance), search for:

"dancing"