# Configuring Search Synonyms

From **Admin > Settings > Search Settings**, you can manage thesauruses for your Vault.

A thesaurus is a list of entries and synonyms that you can import and export from your Vault. When you search for an entry from your thesaurus, Vault expands your search to find results that include synonyms you have defined for that entry and highlights those synonyms in your search results along with your exact search terms. You can also choose whether each entry is multidirectional. If an entry is multidirectional, Vault also expands search for the synonyms to include any results matching the  entries. This vastly improves search functionality and allows you to control the content that Vault returns as part of a search.

Vault implements synonyms across all search scopes, including documents, document full-text, attachment full-text, and object records.

## Example Thesaurus & Search Results

Here are some example entries in a thesaurus:

| Entry | Synonym 1 | Synonym 2 | Synonym 3 | Synonym 4 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cancer | Tumor | Neoplasm | Lymphoma | Leukemia |
|  NYC | New York City | Big Apple |

When you search for _cancer_, Vault also returns results that include _tumor_, _neoplasm_, _lymphoma_, and _leukemia_. Likewise, a search for _NYC_ returns results containing _New York City_ and _Big Apple_. Keep in mind that the thesaurus is not case-sensitive.

In addition to words, entries can be abbreviations and acronyms (ALS, NASA, etc). Entries and synonyms can contain single or multiple words.

## How to Set up a Thesaurus

To set up your thesaurus, navigate to the **Search Settings** page, choose the desired language for your thesaurus and click **Export**. Vault exports the thesaurus as a UTF-16, tab-delimited CSV file and translates column headings for the selected language.

Next, create or add entries and synonyms, enter **TRUE** or **FALSE** for each entry in the _Multidirectional_ column, then **Import** the thesaurus into your Vault.

When saving changes to your thesaurus, save the file in the same format as when you exported it (UTF-16, tab-delimited). Using "Save As" can change the file to an unsupported format (UTF-8, comma delimited/TXT file).

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      <p><strong>Note</strong>: You can only upload a single thesaurus CSV for each supported language. Uploading a second file for the same language overwrites the previous thesaurus file.</p>
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### Valid Thesaurus Entries

Vault imposes the following limitations when uploading a thesaurus:

  * Must be a tab-delimited CSV file
  * 3000 entries per thesaurus
  * 250 characters per row
  * 15 synonyms per row
  * 5 entries per row

## Thesaurus Languages

You can upload a thesaurus for each supported Vault language. However, when a user initiates a search, Vault only uses the thesaurus for that user's language.

For example, if Angelica's language is set to Spanish, Vault only considers the Spanish thesaurus for her searches.

## Related Permissions

Your security profile must grant the **Admin: All Settings: Edit** permission in order to access the search settings page.