title: Thesaurus, taxonomy in SharePoint 2013
body: <h2>Difference or similarity of concepts of thesaurus, taxonomy and synonyms in Sharepoint 2013.</h2>
  
  <p>I'm confused with theses concept used in SharePoint and blogs.
  Would someone points the major differences between theses concept in the scope of Sharepoint.</p>
  
  <p>Afaik:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p><em>synonyms</em> are flat csv files used for query extension.</p></li>
  <li><p><em>taxonomy</em> are termSet 
  “A taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of words, labels, or terms that are organized into groups based on similarities.” (from <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-managed-metadata-in-sharepoint-server-2010-HA101859256.aspx#_Toc263345230" rel="nofollow">http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-managed-metadata-in-sharepoint-server-2010-HA101859256.aspx#_Toc263345230</a> )</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>could used as sitemap, query extension for synonyms</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><em>thesaurus</em> :</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>"Use a thesaurus file to specify synonyms for a single word or multiple words that occur in queries. The query is expanded based on the entries in the thesaurus. You create and maintain the thesaurus file in a system external to SharePoint 2013 before you import it into SharePoint 2013 to make the synonyms available to the search system." ( from <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219579.aspx#proc1" rel="nofollow">http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219579.aspx#proc1</a> )</p>
  
  <p>Should i anderstand that 'taxonomy' and 'thesaurus' <strong>seen from sharepoint</strong> are synonyms ?</p>