The words closest in meaning to one dictionary entry, or to one meaning of it. Opens from Show more similar words under a word page's similar-words list, and holds the whole list rather than the few rows a word page has room for.
What the page searched
The heading names what the search ran on. It takes two forms.
| Heading | What it searched |
|---|---|
| Words similar to 掛ける - to hang, to suspend | Only the meaning after the dash. Rows are near-synonyms of hanging something |
| Words similar to 掛ける (no dash clause) | The whole entry, across all of its meanings at once |
- On a word with one meaning the two forms agree; on a word with five, the whole-entry rows answer a wider question.
- 掛ける also means to spend, to phone, to sit and to multiply. Each meaning has a list of its own.
- The written form in the heading links back to that entry.
Closest first, no score
Rows are ordered closest first and carry no number: no percentage, no match strength, no star rating. That is a decision, not an omission.
The measurements sit in a narrow band: two unrelated words still score high, and the gap between a genuine near-synonym and an unrelated word can be a fraction of a percent. Printing "86% similar" would claim a precision that is not there, with no way to check it. The order carries only what the measurement can honestly support: this one is closer than that one.
How many rows
The control above the list holds ten, twenty or fifty rows, and opens at twenty. The chosen list length is remembered, so a resized list can be bookmarked or shared and opens at the same size.
Every option is a cap, not the whole neighbourhood. Fifty rows is where your choice stops, not where the words run out.
What is in the list
- Every row carries its own definition. That is the part that separates them: 言う and 話す both mean to say, and the definition is where you see which one to use.
- Dictionary words only. The dictionary also holds millions of conjugated forms. Without this limit, 自動車 would bring back 車内で instead of 電気自動車.
- One row per word. Where several meanings of the same word rank together, they arrive as a single row, so fifty rows are fifty words.
When nothing sits close
In place of the list the page says Nothing sits close to this meaning of 掛ける. That is a result, not a fault: the search ran and nothing came back close enough to put in front of you. A narrow, specific meaning can land there, and so can a word with few near relatives in the dictionary.