Antidote 10 User Guide

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User Guide / The Dictionaries / Searching by Criteria

Searching by Criteria

Searching by criteria is a powerful tool that will let you explore and make the most of Antidote’s dictionaries. You can combine a series of criteria and see the results displayed as you enter each criterion.

Accessing search by criteria

There are different ways to access this function.

  1. Select one criterion from the Criteria menu. The search panel will be displayed, launching a search using the specified criterion applied to the headword; you can then modify this criterion as you wish, or add other criteria.
  2. Click on one of the predefined searches in the More section of the dictionary of definitions. The search panel will be displayed, with the results of the search specified; you can then narrow down these results or add other criteria as you wish.
  3. In Contains or Anagrams mode of the instant search menu, click on the first command in the menu or the All results option. The search panel will be displayed with the results of the search specified; you can then narrow down these results or add other criteria as you wish.

Description of criteria

Word: Look for words that contain, begin with or end with a given character string (or do not). Look for anagrams of a given string.

Category: Look for words that belong, or do not, to one of the syntactic categories suggested (noun, adjective, verb, etc.).

Definition: Look for words whose definition includes, or does not include, a given word, inflected or not.

Domain: Look for words that belong, or do not belong, to one of the domains suggested (medicine, music, astronomy, etc.).

Encyclopedic information: Look for names of people, countries, cities or World Heritage sites.

Number of letters: Look for words with a number of letters equal to, smaller than or larger than a given number.

Number of syllables: Look for words with a number of syllables equal to, smaller than or larger than a given number.

Frequency: Look for words whose frequency is the same as, lower than or higher than a given frequency (from very rare to very frequent).

Rhyme: Look for words that rhyme with a given word.

National spelling: Look for words whose spelling is particular to a given country.

Register: Look for words that belong or do not belong to one of the levels of language suggested (informal, formal, neutral, etc.).

Number: Look for words whose form is singular or plural.

Positive/Negative: Look for words that may or may not have a positive or negative connotation.

Language of origin: Look for words that come from one of the languages suggested (Italian, French, German, etc.).

Using criteria

Each criterion has different parameters that you have to define or choose: enter a text string, choose from a drop-down menu with two or several states (is or is not) or values (fewer than, equals, greater than) or from a list of defined options (different domains or languages of origin).

For example, the Word criterion starts by offering you a drop-down menu of eight parameters: is, contains, begins with, ends with, anagrams of, does not contain, does not begin with and does not end with.

After you choose the contains parameter, for example, enter the desired character string in the headword field. If you type the three letters bal, you will see football, ball, global, balance, etc.

Use the ? criterion with Word to add one or more unknown characters to the string. You can also use the *, & and # symbols as described in the Searching With Variables section.

Adding criteria

Suppose you have already searched for all the words whose definition contains the word mouse (criterion Definition contains mouse), but you want to limit the results to those that contain the computer-related term. Click on the + Add criteria button and select the Domain criterion.

This new criterion is added beneath the previous one. From the domains in the drop-down menu, select computer/telecommunications.

Logical connectors: ALL and ONE OF

When your search contains more than one criterion, use these logical connectors to decide how they should combine.

All

All the results must meet all the criteria. This connector is represented by the conjunction AND between the criteria: 1st criterion AND 2nd criterion AND 3rd criterion, etc.

One of

The results must meet at least one of the criteria. This connector is represented by the conjunction OR between the criteria: 1st criterion OR 2nd criterion OR 3rd criterion, etc.

Thus the combination Definition contains mouse AND Domain is computer/telecommunications in our previous example will find all the words whose definition contains the word mouse (highlighted in yellow in the previews) and is in the computer/telecommunications domain: drag, click, rollerball, etc. With the one of connector, on the other hand, the combination Definition contains mouse OR Domain is computer/telecommunications will display all words whose definition contains the word mouse (like rodent and Steinbeck) or that have to do with computers (like program and install).

Deleting criteria

To delete criteria from your search, click on the minus-sign button at the far right of the criteria bar. The results will adjust automatically.

List of results

The results are displayed as a list of headwords (in blue) followed by their categories (n., v., adj., etc.) and, if applicable, other relevant information for the criteria used (phonetic transcription, number of letters, domain, etc.). Each headword may be accompanied by a preview, which is generally the start of its definition but also changes with the criteria used. The number of results obtained is shown at the top of the list.

If the list of results extends over several pages, click on the arrows and page numbers at the bottom of each page to view the rest of the results.

Definition tooltip

To consult the complete definition of a result without leaving the search panel, click on the button that appears when you hover your mouse over the word in blue.

Clicking directly on the headword instead of on the button will take you out of the search panel, to the corresponding entry in the dictionary of definitions.

Filters

To the left of the list of results is a series of filters and options that let you refine your results and change the way they are displayed. The filters displayed depend on the search criteria. They provide statistics on the subsets of the list and let you limit the display to a given subset. Just click on a filter, or on All to return to the complete list of results. You can combine several filters and the list of results will adjust automatically. Below is a description of the various filters.

Categories

Lets you limit displayed results to a given syntactic category.

Domains

Accompanies the results of the Domain criterion when the domain chosen includes two subdomains (e.g. computer/telecommunications). It lets you display results from only one of these subdomains.

Contexts

Accompanies certain results of the Definition criterion. It allows you to distinguish definitions in which the searched word appears in a positive context (e.g. edible) from those in which it appears in a negative context (e.g. not edible).

Number of letters

Accompanies the results of the Number of letters criterion or the Word: anagrams of… criterion. It lets you display only words containing a specific number of letters.

Anagrams

Accompanies the results of the Word: anagrams of… criterion. It lets you display only certain types of anagrams (complete or with letters removed, added or substituted).

Frequency

Accompanies the results of the Frequency criterion and lets you display only a specified frequency interval.

Register

Accompanies the results of the Register criterion and lets you limit the words displayed to a single register of language.

Rhymes

Accompanies the results of the Rhyme criterion and classifies rhymes according to their richness (number of common phonemes at the end of the word). It lets you display only words with a given number of common phonemes.

Number of syllables

Accompanies the results of the Number of syllables criterion or the Rhyme criterion. It lets you display only words with a specific number of syllables.

Number

Accompanies the results of the Number criterion and lets you separate invariable words (with identical singular and plural forms) from singular or plural words (depending on the value set for this criterion).

Language of origin

Accompanies the results of the Language of origin criterion and lets you display only words whose etymology is derived partially from another language.

Country of origin

Accompanies the results of the Encyclopedic information: World Heritage criterion and lets you display only UNESCO World Heritage sites located in a specific country.

Population

Accompanies the results of the Encyclopedic information: towns/cities or Encyclopedic information: countries criterion and lets you display only places whose population is within a given range.

Area

Accompanies the results of the Encyclopedic information: countries criterion and lets you display only countries whose area is within a given interval.

Currency

Accompanies the results of the Encyclopedic information: countries criterion and lets you display only those countries using a specific currency.

Other options and information

Criteria

This indicator, above the filters, summarizes the criteria that were applied to obtain the results displayed. It lets you check your criteria and is useful if you wish to print the results.

Sort

You can switch between different ways of sorting results: by relevance, alphabetically, by syntactic category or by number of letters (for searches where this information is relevant). Relevance is generally linked to frequency, but depends on the dominant criterion. For instance, when you use the Rhyme criterion, the relevance corresponds to the richness of the rhyme.

Forms options

The options for Forms, displayed below the filters, are described in the Searching With Variables section.

Show IPA/respelling

This option accompanies the results of a search for rhymes or number of syllables and lets you switch between the phonetic respelling of the word and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Show/Hide preview

This option lets you display or hide the preview of the definition accompanying each result. Hiding previews has the advantage of showing a more condensed list of results.

Tips for searching by criteria

Here are some tips to help you search more efficiently.

Repeating the same criterion

You can repeat a given criterion while changing its values. For instance, searching Word contains x AND Word contains y AND Word contains z will list the words that each contain the last three letters of the alphabet.

Negative criteria

Negative criteria—is not and does not contain—are particularly useful to limit results, for example, when you want to exclude proper nouns, as described in the next paragraph.

Excluding proper nouns

To exclude proper nouns from results, add the AND Category is not proper noun criterion. For instance, if you add this criterion to the criterion Word contains port, proper nouns like Portugal and Portland will not appear in the results.

Exclude expressions/idioms

Results sometimes include expressions and idioms, which contain at least one space (e.g. come to think of it, triumphal arch). Uncheck the with spaces box under Forms to exclude them from your results. Note that words with a hyphen or internal apostrophe will also be excluded.

Search for anagrams

Anagrams are words formed with the same letters, but in a different order, like crass and scars. With the Word: anagrams of… criterion and the Number of letters filter, you can limit the results to exact anagrams, with exactly the same letters, or extend your search to words with fewer or more letters than the original word.

Have fun!

The only limit to combining the different search criteria is your imagination and curiosity. For example, is it true that not a single English word rhymes with depth? How many English words in the political domain are of Greek origin? Now you know how to find out!

Exiting search by criteria

To close the search by criteria panel and return to the previous dictionary consulted, click on the Done button in the upper right-hand corner.