Setup synonyms or alias or thesaurus in SharePoint

1. Navigate to path C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx-query-0\Config on your SharePoint Server

Note: This is the SharePoint Server that hosts the Search Query component files. So the location may vary depending on how your FARM and Search Service Application is configured, but usually, it is located as shown above within the Config folder of GUID-query-X folder named.

2. Locate file tsenu.xml, copy, and keep a backup original file. This will be useful if something goes wrong.

3. Open tsenu.xml file and remove the commented lines (<!-- Commented out, -->)

4. Add/Modify the <replacement> node to add a new synonym for an existing term as shown below

<replacement>
<pat>BHARAT</pat>
<pat>HINDUSTAN</pat>
<sub>INDIA</sub>
</replacement>

<sub> = actual text
<pat> = synonym

5.To add more synonyms, repeat the <replacement> nodes.

6. Save the file and close it.

7. Navigate to Services.msc and restart the SharePoint Server Search 14 service.

Saw the good part? This does not require any deployment or downtime. So can be planned and done whenever required.

8. Perform a search query using synonym and check results