How the CCS works: thesaurus

The CCS also comes with a thesaurus. This is simply an alphabetical list of all the 'preferred terms' (that is, headings, mid-terms and leaf-terms) in the CCS together with synonyms for each preferred term. For each of the synonyms and CCS preferred terms, the thesaurus provides the following information:

• how it is placed in relation to other terms within the classification scheme
• if the word is a preferred term, the synonyms it should be used in preference to
• if the word is a synonym, the preferred term which should be used instead
• a short description of what information is included under that term (called a 'scope note').

Thesaurus jargon and abbreviations

• Scope Note (SN). A short description of the term
• USE. If you have looked up a word which isn't the preferred term USE will tell you what the preferred term is. For example, 'Sacking' is not a preferred term. If you look it up in the thesaurus it will tell you that you should USE 'Dismissal and redundancy'.
• Use for (UF). Use for (UF) tells you that the word you have looked up is a preferred term for other words. For example, the term 'Divorce' is used for (UF) 'decree nisi'.
• Broader Term (BT). A term immediately above the preferred term in the scheme.
• Narrower term (NT). A term below the preferred term in the scheme, a sub-category of this term.
• Related term (RT). A relevant, related term.

February 2007