Defining a custom thesaurus enables you to process queries more intelligently. Because users of your application might not know which words represent a topic, you can define synonyms or narrower terms for likely query terms. You can use the thesaurus operators to expand your query into your thesaurus terms.
There are two ways to enhance your query application with a custom thesaurus so that you can process queries more intelligently:
Load your custom thesaurus and enter queries with thesaurus operators
Augment the knowledge base with your custom thesaurus (English only) and use the ABOUT operator to expand your query.
Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages.
This section contains the following topics.