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a Python library for wordnets
Python Support
Available Wordnets | Documentation | FAQ | Migrating from NLTK | Citation

Wn is a Python library for exploring information in wordnets.

Installation

Install it from PyPI using pip:

pip install wn

or uv:

uv add wn

[!IMPORTANT] Existing users of Wn may encounter an error about an incompatible database schema. The remedy is to rebuild the database. There is a new function to help with this:
>>> wn.reset_database(rebuild=True)  # re-add any indexed lexicons
or
>>> wn.reset_database()  # initialize without re-adding; start from scratch

Getting Started

First, download some data:

python -m wn download oewn:2025+  # the Open English WordNet 2025+

Now start exploring:

>>> import wn
>>> en = wn.Wordnet('oewn:2025+')       # Create Wordnet object to query
>>> ss = en.synsets('win', pos='v')[0]  # Get the first synset for 'win'
>>> ss.definition()                     # Get the synset's definition
'be the winner in a contest or competition; be victorious'

Features

Multilingual by design; first-class support for wordnets in any language
Interlingual queries via the Collaborative Interlingual Index
Six similarity metrics
Functions for exploring taxonomies
Support for lemmatization (Morphy for English is built-in) and unicode normalization
Full support of the WN-LMF 1.4 format, including word pronunciations and lexicon extensions
SQL-based backend offers very fast startup and improved performance on many kinds of queries

Available Wordnets

Any WN-LMF-formatted wordnet can be added to Wn's database from a local file or remote URL, but Wn also maintains an index (see wn/index.toml) of available projects, similar to a package manager for software, to aid in the discovery and downloading of new wordnets. The projects in this index are listed below.

English Wordnets

There are several English wordnets available. In general it is recommended to use the latest Open English Wordnet, but if you have stricter compatibility needs for, e.g., experiment replicability, you may try the OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.0 (compatible with the Princeton WordNet 3.0 and with the NLTK), or OpenWordnet-EN (for use with the Portuguese wordnet OpenWordnet-PT).

Name	Specifier	# Synsets	Notes
Open English WordNet	`oewn:2025+` `oewn:2025` `oewn:2024` `oewn:2023` `oewn:2022` `oewn:2021` `ewn:2020` `ewn:2019`	120564 107519 120630 120135 120068 120039 120053 117791	← Recommended
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 1.5	`omw-en15:2.0`	91591
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 1.6	`omw-en16:2.0`	99642
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 1.7	`omw-en17:2.0`	109377
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 1.7.1	`omw-en171:2.0`	111223
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 2.0	`omw-en20:2.0`	115424
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 2.1	`omw-en21:2.0`	117597
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.0	`omw-en:2.0` `omw-en:1.4`	117659 117659	Included with `omw:2.0` Included with `omw:1.4`
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.1	`omw-en31:2.0` `omw-en31:1.4`	117791 117791
OpenWordnet-EN	`own-en:1.0.0`	117659	Included with `own:1.0.0`

Other Wordnets and Collections

These are standalone non-English wordnets and collections. The wordnets of each collection are listed further down.

Name	Specifier	# Synsets	Language
Open Multilingual Wordnet	`omw:1.4`	n/a	multiple [mul]
Open German WordNet	`odenet:1.4` `odenet:1.3`	36268 36159	German [de]
Open Wordnets for Portuguese and English	`own:1.0.0`	n/a	multiple [mul]
KurdNet	`kurdnet:1.0`	2144	Kurdish [ckb]

Open Multilingual Wordnet (OMW) Collection

The Open Multilingual Wordnet collection (omw:1.4) installs the following lexicons (from here) which can also be downloaded and installed independently:

Name	Specifier	# Synsets	Language
Albanet	`omw-sq:2.0` `omw-sq:1.4`	4679 4675	Albanian [sq]
Arabic WordNet (AWN v2)	`omw-arb:2.0` `omw-arb:1.4`	9916 9916	Arabic [arb]
BulTreeBank Wordnet (BTB-WN)	`omw-bg:2.0` `omw-bg:1.4`	4959 4959	Bulgarian [bg]
Chinese Open Wordnet	`omw-cmn:2.0` `omw-cmn:1.4`	42300 42312	Mandarin (Simplified) [cmn-Hans]
Croatian Wordnet	`omw-hr:2.0` `omw-hr:1.4`	23115 23120	Croatian [hr]
DanNet	`omw-da:2.0` `omw-da:1.4`	4476 4476	Danish [da]
FinnWordNet	`omw-fi:2.0` `omw-fi:1.4`	116763 116763	Finnish [fi]
Greek Wordnet	`omw-el:2.0` `omw-el:1.4`	18113 18049	Greek [el]
Hebrew Wordnet	`omw-he:2.0` `omw-he:1.4`	5448 5448	Hebrew [he]
IceWordNet	`omw-is:2.0` `omw-is:1.4`	4951 4951	Icelandic [is]
Italian Wordnet	`omw-iwn:2.0` `omw-iwn:1.4`	15563 15563	Italian [it]
Japanese Wordnet	`omw-ja:2.0` `omw-ja:1.4`	117659 57184	Japanese [ja]
Lithuanian WordNet	`omw-lt:2.0` `omw-lt:1.4`	9462 9462	Lithuanian [lt]
Multilingual Central Repository	`omw-ca:2.0` `omw-ca:1.4`	60765 45826	Catalan [ca]
Multilingual Central Repository	`omw-eu:2.0` `omw-eu:1.4`	29420 29413	Basque [eu]
Multilingual Central Repository	`omw-gl:2.0` `omw-gl:1.4`	34776 19312	Galician [gl]
Multilingual Central Repository	`omw-es:2.0` `omw-es:1.4`	78948 38512	Spanish [es]
MultiWordNet	`omw-it:2.0` `omw-it:1.4`	35001 35001	Italian [it]
Norwegian Wordnet	`omw-nb:2.0` `omw-nb:1.4`	4455 4455	Norwegian (Bokmål) [nb]
Norwegian Wordnet	`omw-nn:2.0` `omw-nn:1.4`	3671 3671	Norwegian (Nynorsk) [nn]
OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.0	`omw-en:2.0` `omw-en:1.4`	117659 117659	English [en]
Open Dutch WordNet	`omw-nl:2.0` `omw-nl:1.4`	30177 30177	Dutch [nl]
OpenWN-PT	`omw-pt:2.0` `omw-pt:1.4`	43895 43895	Portuguese [pt]
plWordNet	`omw-pl:2.0` `omw-pl:1.4`	33826 33826	Polish [pl]
Romanian Wordnet	`omw-ro:2.0` `omw-ro:1.4`	58754 56026	Romanian [ro]
Slovak WordNet	`omw-sk:2.0` `omw-sk:1.4`	18507 18507	Slovak [sk]
sloWNet	`omw-sl:2.0` `omw-sl:1.4`	42590 42583	Slovenian [sl]
Swedish (SALDO)	`omw-sv:2.0` `omw-sv:1.4`	6796 6796	Swedish [sv]
Thai Wordnet	`omw-th:2.0` `omw-th:1.4`	73350 73350	Thai [th]
WOLF (Wordnet Libre du Français)	`omw-fr:2.0` `omw-fr:1.4`	59091 59091	French [fr]
Wordnet Bahasa	`omw-id:2.0` `omw-id:1.4`	46774 38085	Indonesian [id]
Wordnet Bahasa	`omw-zsm:2.0` `omw-zsm:1.4`	36911 36911	Malaysian [zsm]

Open Wordnet (OWN) Collection

The Open Wordnets for Portuguese and English collection (own:1.0.0) installs the following lexicons (from here) which can also be downloaded and installed independently:

Name	Specifier	# Synsets	Language
OpenWordnet-PT	`own-pt:1.0.0`	52670	Portuguese [pt]
OpenWordnet-EN	`own-en:1.0.0`	117659	English [en]

Collaborative Interlingual Index

While not a wordnet, the Collaborative Interlingual Index (CILI) represents the interlingual backbone of many wordnets. Wn, including interlingual queries, will function without CILI loaded, but adding it to the database makes available the full list of concepts, their status (active, deprecated, etc.), and their definitions.

Name	Specifier	# Concepts
Collaborative Interlingual Index	`cili:1.0`	117659

Changes to the Index

`ewn` → `oewn`

The 2021 version of the Open English WordNet (oewn:2021) has changed its lexicon ID from ewn to oewn, so the index is updated accordingly. The previous versions are still available as ewn:2019 and ewn:2020.

`pwn` → `omw-en`, `omw-en31`

The wordnet formerly called the Princeton WordNet (pwn:3.0, pwn:3.1) is now called the OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.0 (omw-en) and the OMW English Wordnet based on WordNet 3.1 (omw-en31). This is more accurate, as it is a OMW-produced derivative of the original WordNet data, and it also avoids license or trademark issues.

`wn` → `omw-` for OMW wordnets

All OMW wordnets have changed their ID scheme from ...wn to omw-.. and the version no longer includes +omw (e.g., bulwn:1.3+omw is now omw-bg:1.4).

Citation

Michael Wayne Goodman and Francis Bond. 2021. Intrinsically Interlingual: The Wn Python Library for Wordnets In Proceedings of the 11th Global Wordnet Conference, pages 100–107, University of South Africa (UNISA). Global Wordnet Association.

Release files for wn 1.1.1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for wn 1.1.1
File	Size	Uploaded
wn-1.1.1.tar.gz	164.1 kB	Aug 14, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for wn 1.1.1
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
wn-1.1.1-py3-none-any.whl 95.8 kB Aug 14, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 259.9 kB

Release files / wn-1.1.1.tar.gz

Download URL	wn-1.1.1.tar.gz
Size	164.1 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`0555ea875f13df648f343b9c622153e4f71ee42bc9d57a00f260e1928f86b128`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`12a3df602e01adb0b18a0b1720a87d5d761cc663ecbaa846ed5a4939a5357dc5`
Upload date	Aug 14, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

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Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/goodmami/wn
Publishing commit: github.com/goodmami/wn/tree/703f8e6d1c7f3110487dad0dd7bbfd1994ad2922

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/goodmami/wn/blob/703f8e6d1c7f3110487dad0dd7bbfd1994ad2922/.github/workflows/publish.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/goodmami/wn/actions/runs/31777482787/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: wn-1.1.1.tar.gz
SHA-256 checksum: 0555ea875f13df648f343b9c622153e4f71ee42bc9d57a00f260e1928f86b128 Verifying attestations

Release files / wn-1.1.1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	wn-1.1.1-py3-none-any.whl
Size	95.8 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`feaea1ef53806729b4629daa769546adb55a45cd029fa8e524db2ada837f8d24`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`c103dd84df87acf1cdba5d6f9fb1770f8880fc9c4139c380118c8b35ad5b4d85`
Upload date	Aug 14, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/goodmami/wn
Publishing commit: github.com/goodmami/wn/tree/703f8e6d1c7f3110487dad0dd7bbfd1994ad2922

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/goodmami/wn/blob/703f8e6d1c7f3110487dad0dd7bbfd1994ad2922/.github/workflows/publish.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/goodmami/wn/actions/runs/31777482787/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: wn-1.1.1-py3-none-any.whl
SHA-256 checksum: feaea1ef53806729b4629daa769546adb55a45cd029fa8e524db2ada837f8d24 Verifying attestations