How to use context to find relevant phrases?

The context field is an extremely versatile free-text field (up to 200 characters can be added) which can be used for the following purposes:

  • add definition, note, explanation
  • add antonyms, synonyms, register, etc.
  • add abbreviations, acronyms, etc.
  • add relevant grammar rules
  • add source and reference URLs relating to the term
  • add classifying terms to limit context-based search (for example, wrestling would show all terms relating to this specialised topic)

Context-based search differs from a headword or non-headword search in one important aspect: all other searches are based on the fact that the particular keyword should be available in the resulting term.

Context-based search works with a particular criterion which may not contain the search term. See the screenshot below.

Task

You want to write a passage relating to the personalities of two characters. For this purpose you would like to browse through all collocations relating to personality.

Solution

Under Advanced Search, enter the keyword (personality) as shown below and select Context under Search in.

An alternate method would be to search under Context Group. Here we have listed a filtered set of major context-related groups. All such groups are also available if one were to search for a particular context word under Search keyword (in context). For example, under Personality we have following groups:

  • Personality traits (Admirable)
  • Personality traits (Weak)
  • Personality (Unpleasant)
  • Personality (Other)


We can select Personality (Unpleasant) to shortlist the results and click on Search. The screenshot below shows the search results.

Which method to use in a given situation?

The ideal way would be to first search for a context word under Context Group. If the desired result is not found, you can search under the more comprehensive search field Search keyword (in context). Context Group makes it easier for you to browse through the list of collocations which are grouped under a particular context. If that context matches with the type of collocations you are looking for, you may check out these search results.

Please note that if the possible context does not display any results, you can try with a synonym term. If that also finds no results, you will need to search for different headwords that relate to the criteria you are searching for. For example, if the criterion is “joyous event”, you can search for headwords that relate to it (for example, joy, laughter, celebration, etc.).