API

This site sports a very simple API for retrieving the synonyms for any word. You can access the API by making a GET request to the following URL:

http://words.bighugelabs.com/api/{version}/{api key}/{word}/{format}

Arguments

version
2
api key
Your API key.
word
The word you want to lookup.
format (optional)
json, php, xml. If left off then the response defaults to newline delimited plain text.
JSON callback function (optional)
See examples below

Response

The response is always an array. 'xml' and 'json' should be self-explanatory. The 'php' format is a serialized PHP array that can be unserialized with the unserialize() function. The plain text response is pipe and newline delimited.

Examples

There are two versions of the API as of April 2008.

Version 2 provides a richer set of data including part of speech and relationship to the requested word:

Relationship types are "syn" for synonyms, "ant" for antonyms, "rel" for related terms, "sim" for similar terms, and "usr" for user suggestions. Not all parts of speech or relationship types are guaranteed to be available for all words so test for their existence before using them.

Version 1 provides very simple output and is deprecated.

You can also view a sample administration page that comes with every API key: Sample admin page

HTTP Response Codes

200 OK: The word was found and the results are in the body.

303 {alternate}: The original word was not found but an alternative has been. The alternative is the HTTP response message. For example, a request for "reminding" returns 303 remind. The Location header contains the URL for the API request for "remind."

404 Not Found: No data could be found for the word or alternates.

500 Usage Exceeded: Usage limits have been exceeded.

500 Inactive key: The key is not active.

Get an API key

Terms of use

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