Synonyms, located below references when in edit mode, are used in a number of scenarios.
On this page:
What is a synonym?
A synonym is essentially a 'redirect' to an article. This enables links created to article A to pass to article B, provided article B has an added synonym "article A".
Having extensive synonyms, not only increases the ease of link creation, but also reduces the risk of duplicate articles being written.
Alternative spellings / plurals
Many terms have a number of spellings, most often differing between UK and US English.
hemorrhage and hemorrhage
tumor and tumor
Similarly plurals aid in easy link creation
meningioma and meningiomas
Some terms have alternate spellings which are still in common usage but we have made a conscious editorial decision to not use them on Radiopaedia but which should still be added to synonyms
sulphur: sulfur is now preferred, and any derivatives
foetus: fetus is now preferred, and any derivatives
Incorrect spellings / plurals
Some medical terms are commonly incorrectly spelled or pluralised, and for these cases it is helpful to include the incorrect spelling in the synonyms to ensure that searches for these incorrectly-spelled search strings still result in the correct article for the end user.
use of the suffixes -paenia and paenic, e.g. lymphopaenia, thrombocytopaenia, leucopaenic
incorrect plurals e.g. epididymi, epididymises (correct is epididymides)
Rearranged longer titles
Some titles are long and can be rearranged.
TCC of the bladder
Bladder TCC
Transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder
Bladder transitional cell carcinoma
Initialisms and acronyms
Synonyms are also a good place to include known abbreviations for a topic. In the vast majority of cases, it makes sense to include a term in brackets that helps qualify the abbreviation as many abbreviations have more than one usage, and doing so avoids ambiguity and confusion for the end-user.
For example, COPD (lung)
More specific future articles
In some instances you may have written a general article for a condition that will eventually require multiple articles. This is most often the case with systemic disease. In such cases it is useful to add as synonyms what you think future articles will be. This way appropriate links can be created.
For example an initial article on sarcoidosis may be given the additional synonyms:
pulmonary manifestations of sarcoidosis
gastrointestinal manifestations of sarcoidosis
neurosarcoidosis
"Include in Listings?" Option
To the right of the entry field for synonyms or alternate spellings is a check box captioned "Include in Listings?"
This denotes whether this term will appear in the "Encyclopedia" ("Browse by topic or system") section of the site. In general, include only listings that are going to appear in different parts of the list, rather than side by side.
Delete a synonym
To delete a synonym, simply click the red "-" to the far right of that synonym.