Originally, WordNet is a lexical database for the English language, and now it has been extended to other languages as well. It groups words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short definitions and usage examples, and records a number of relations among these synonym sets or their members. WordNet can thus be seen as a combination of dictionary and thesaurus. The primary use of WordNet is in automatic text analysis and artificial intelligence applications.
WordNet - History
WordNet was created in the Cognitive Science Laboratory of Princeton University under the direction of psychology professor George Armitage Miller starting in 1985 and has been directed in recent years by Christiane Fellbaum. The project received funding from government agencies including the National Science Foundation, DARPA, the Disruptive Technology Office (formerly the Advanced Research and Development Activity), and REFLEX. George Miller and Christiane Fellbaum were awarded the 2006 Antonio Zampolli Prize for their work with WordNet.
Resources:
Princeton Wordnet of English (PWN)
A Complete Multilingual WordNet List by Language
Copyright 2014-2017. Samuel Chong, Pasadena City College