(1) A term that an information retrieval system considers to be equivalent to another term for both indexing and querying. For example, an IR system could define “car,” “passenger vehicle,” and “automobile” to be synonyms. See also index, information retrieval, query. (2) An AppleScript word, phrase, or language element that has the same meaning as another AppleScript word, phrase, or language element. For example, the operator does not equal is a synonym for ≠.