# Extracting Synonyms from Bilingual Dictionaries

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.00600 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00600/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Dec 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

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- [Lisan: Yemeni, Iraqi, Libyan, and Sudanese Arabic Dialect Copora with Morphological Annotations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06468/) (2022)
- [ArBanking77: Intent Detection Neural Model and a New Dataset in Modern and Dialectical Arabic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19034/) (2023)
- [Current Trends and Approaches in Synonyms Extraction: Potential Adaptation to Arabic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10412/) (2022)
- [QuranMorph: Morphologically Annotated Quranic Corpus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18148/) (2025)
- [SinaTools: Open Source Toolkit for Arabic Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01523/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present our progress in developing a novel algorithm to extract synonyms from bilingual dictionaries. Identification and usage of synonyms play a significant role in improving the performance of information access applications. The idea is to construct a translation graph from translation pairs, then to extract and consolidate cyclic paths to form bilingual sets of synonyms. The initial evaluation of this algorithm illustrates promising results in extracting Arabic-English bilingual synonyms. In the evaluation, we first converted the synsets in the Arabic WordNet into translation pairs (i.e., losing word-sense memberships). Next, we applied our algorithm to rebuild these synsets. We compared the original and extracted synsets obtaining an F-Measure of 82.3% and 82.1% for Arabic and English synsets extraction, respectively.