19. The method of claim 17 wherein the pair of input words comprises two different senses of the same word.
17. A method in a computer system for determining the level of similarity of a pair of input words, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of semantic relation type path patterns, each comprising an ordered series of semantic relation types, whose occurrence between arbitrary pairs of words indicate that the arbitrary pairs of words have similar meanings; and if path patterns occurring between the input words include semantic relation type path patterns among the identified plurality, indicating that the input words are similar in meaning.