Search using a Thesaurus (#17)

A thesaurus is a defined list of related terms used to describe content eg articles. In databases, articles are often “tagged” with a thesaurus term. You can search for the thesaurus term.

The same thesaurus term will be used consistently across articles; thus even though the authors may have used different terms in their articles, the thesaurus term will be the same.

By searching for a thesaurus term you should find articles on the same topic, even though the authors may have used different keywords or concept words.

Icons of articles with some highlighted with a tag indicating they have the same thesaurus term

You can learn more about the thesaurus in the Cinahl database by completing our etutorial Using a Thesaurus.