SynonymInfo Object

Represents the information about synonyms, antonyms, related words, or related expressions for the specified range or a given string.

Using the SynonymInfo Object

Use the SynonymInfo property to return a SynonymInfo object. The SynonymInfo object can be returned either from a range or from Word. If it's returned from Word, you specify the lookup word or phrase and a proofing language ID. If it's returned from a range, Word uses the specified range as the lookup word. The following example returns a SynonymInfo object from Word.

temp = SynonymInfo(Word:="meant", LanguageID:=wdEnglishUS).Found

The following example returns a SynonymInfo object from a range.

temp = Selection.Range.SynonymInfo.Found

The Found property, used in the preceding examples, returns True if any information is found in the thesaurus for the specified range or for Word. Note, however, that this property returns True not only if synonyms are found but also if related words, related expressions, or antonyms are found.

Many of the properties of the SynonymInfo object return a Variant that contains an array of strings. When working with these properties, you can assign the returned array to a variable and then index the variable to see the elements in the array. In the following example, Slist is assigned the synonym list for the first meaning of the selected word or phrase. The UBound function finds the upper bound of the array, and then each element is displayed in a message box.

Slist = Selection.Range.SynonymInfo.SynonymList(1)
For i = 1 To UBound(Slist)
    Msgbox Slist(i)
Next i

You can check the value of the MeaningCount property to prevent potential errors in your code. The following example returns a list of synonyms for the second meaning for the word or phrase in the selection and displays these synonyms in the Immediate pane.

Set synInfo = Selection.Range.SynonymInfo
If synInfo.MeaningCount >= 2 Then
    synList = synInfo.SynonymList(2)
    For i = 1 To UBound(synList)
        Debug.Print synList(i)
    Next i
Else
    MsgBox "There is no second meaning for the selection."
End If