WordNet Atlas: a web application for visualizing WordNet as a zoomable map

The English WordNet is a lexical database containing more than 206,900 wordconcept pairs and more than 377,500 semantic and lexical links. Trying to visualize them all at once as a node-link diagram results in a representation which can be too big and complex for the user to grasp, and which cannot be easily processed by current web technologies. We propose a visualization technique based on the concept of semantic zooming, usually found in popular web map applications. This technique makes it feasible to handle large and complex graphs, and display them in an interactive representation. By zooming, it is possible to switch from an overview visualization, quickly and clearly presenting the global characteristics of the structure, to a detailed one, displaying a classic node-link diagram. WordNet Atlas is a web application that leverages this method to aid the user in the exploration of the WordNet data set, from its global taxonomy structure to the detail of words and synonym sets.