---
name: "glossidx"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "wordnet"
version: "1.6-10"
release: "Debian 2.2 (Potato)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/glossidx"
---

# glossidx(5)

index of words found in WordNet synset glosses

## NAME

index.gloss, gloss.idx - index of words found in WordNet synset glosses

## DESCRIPTION

The WordNet gloss index lists all of the content words found in the synset glosses and identifies the gloss(es) containing the word.  The file **stoplist.pl** contains a list of functions words that are omitted from the gloss index.

This file can be used to help find WordNet synsets that are related topically.  For example, the gloss index can be used to find synsets in all syntactic categories related to the monosemous noun and verb **golf** by retrieving all synsets listed in the gloss index after the strings **golf**, **golfclub**, **golfer** and **golfers**.

It is important to note, as indicated in the previous example, that in this file words are simply strings of consecutive characters found in the glosses, and are not syntactically tagged or lemmatized.  Base forms and various inflections must be searched for separately. Strings are all in lower case, however, so gloss terms encountered in synsets in both upper and lower case are folded into the same *word* entry.

### File Format

The gloss index file is in alphabetical order, fields are separated by one space, and each line is terminated with a newline character. Items in italicized square brackets may not be present.

Each line is of the form:

*word  pos***,***synset\_offset  \[pos***,***synset\_offset...\]*

where *word* is a lower case string of characters as found in a synset gloss and *pos* is an integer indicating the syntactic category of the synset as follows:

```
1	NOUN
2	VERB
3	ADJECTIVE
4	ADVERB
```

See **wndb**(5WN) for a description of *synset\_offset*.

## NOTES

The gloss index is a very large file (5.7MB), and is not used by the WordNet searching software.  It can be useful to applications that the user may wish to write, and is therefore included in the WordNet package.  If you are not doing research or development that uses this file, it can be deleted from the **WNSEARCHDIR** directory in order to save disk space.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

- **WNHOME**

  Base directory for WordNet.  Unix default is  **/usr/local/wordnet1.6**, PC default is **C:\\wn16**, Macintosh default is **:**.

- **WNSEARCHDIR**

  Directory in which the WordNet database has been installed.  Unix and PC default is **WNHOME/dict**.  Macintosh default is **:Database**.

## FILES

All files are in directory **WNSEARCHDIR**:

- **index.gloss**

  gloss index (Unix and Macintosh)

- **gloss.idx**

  gloss index (PC)

- **stoplist.pl**

  Perl associative array listing function words to ignore when parsing glosses

## SEE ALSO

**senseidx**(5WN), **wndb**(5WN).