Which of the following best describes the terms produced by keyword expansion?

• A. A List Of Unrelated Terms
• B. A List Of Terms That Are Synonyms, Highly Correlated, Or Strongly Related
• C. The Original Term Only
• D. A List Of Document IDs

Answer: (B)

Keyword expansion widens a search by adding terms that express the same idea in different words. The terms produced are synonyms, highly correlated terms, or other terms that are strongly related in meaning or usage. This helps capture documents that describe the same concept with different wording, increasing recall without straining precision too much. For example, expanding a query for “data breach” might bring in “security breach,” “information breach,” or “data leakage” because these terms are closely connected in how people discuss the topic.

This is exactly what the option describing a list of terms that are synonyms, highly correlated, or strongly related conveys. It captures the goal of keyword expansion: to compile a broader yet relevant set of terms that map to the same concept rather than pulling in unrelated words, sticking to the original term, or returning document identifiers instead of terms.