https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165037

--- Comment #1 from Julia <[email protected]> ---
I noticed that issues with the Thesaurus are being collected here
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105747 so this one might be
interesting.

There’s not much info in this report, so I tried some things. I used the
following text in an empty LO Writer text file (.odt) (language = English
(United States)): 

My brother gave me an interesting book.
The house was quiet in the evening.
This shows how synonyms are handled.
It appears that adjectives are handled best.

Here are the issues I noticed for the words "brother", "gave", "house", "was",
"shows", "synonyms", "handled" and "appears". Note: This is NOT about the
options shown in the Thesaurus, but the ones that immediately appear when you
right-click on the word and then click on Synonyms (see attached screenshots)

1. Antonyms are suggested as synonyms. This is confusing, because a synonym
means (nearly) the same as a given word, while an antonym means the opposite.
The standard test for synonymy is substitution. You cannot replace “appear”
with “disappear”, for example, without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Examples (see screenshots):
    • brother (synonyms contain “sister”)
    • synonym (synonyms contain “antonym”)
    • handled (synonyms contain “handleless”)
    • appear (synonyms contain “disappear”)                     

Behavior in Microsoft Word: no antonyms in list of suggested synonyms


2. For some words that can be a noun or a verb, only nouns are suggested as
synonyms.

Examples (see screenshots): 
    • house
    • show (“display” might be interpreted as a verb, but if you look at the
thesaurus, you can see that only the first entries make it into the list of
synonyms, which are all listed as nouns)

Behavior in Microsoft Word: no verbs offered for “house”, but verbs are offered
for “shows”


3. For some verb forms, there are no synonyms suggested at all. (This of course
also concerns the thesaurus—there is nothing in there.)

Examples: 
    • gave
    • was

Behavior in Microsoft Word: synonyms are suggested, for example 
    • for "gave", the synonyms contain “offered”
    • for "was", the synonyms contain “existed”


4. In some cases, the same word results in completely different suggestions,
depending on whether there is a period after the word or not.

Examples: 
    • handled (only one synonym suggested, which is an antonym: “handleless”)
    • handled. (synonyms contain “appendage”, “manage”)

Behavior in Microsoft Word: slight variation of the synonym list depending on
period or not, but no antonyms, and all synonyms are verbs.


Summary: 
The LO Writer synonyms feature seems to have some problems with antonyms and
verbs, specifically past tense forms of irregular verbs. I also noticed that
the synonym suggestions are always the first entries in the thesaurus, which
can lead to only nouns being suggested as synonyms for words that can also be
verbs. Moreover, in some cases, whether or not the word is followed by a period
results in completely different synonym suggestions.

Language of the document: English (United States) 
LO Version: 7.5.9.2 (X86_64), 25.8.1.1 (X86_64) (same behavior)
OS: Windows 11
User Profile Reset: Yes
Microsoft Word (for comparison): Microsoft 365 Version 2502 Build
16.0.18526.20546

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