sanastonopas

Sanastonopas is a term used in information design and lexicography to describe a digital tool or framework for creating, organizing, and navigating glossaries and lexical entries. It combines data management with an interactive interface, enabling users to search terms, view definitions, sample sentences, etymology, and relationships to related concepts. In use, it supports cross-referencing, versioning, and multilingual accessibility.

The name is a compound of sanasto, Finnish for glossary, and opas, meaning guide or navigator, reflecting its function as a guided exploration of lexical knowledge.

Core features typically include a searchable glossary database, a semantic graph of related terms, support for multiple languages, audio pronunciations, etymology notes, usage examples, contribution workflows with moderation, and export/import options in standard formats (CSV, JSON) as well as an API for integration with learning management systems and linguistic tools.

Applications include language education, lexicography, terminology management in specialized domains, and text annotation. Sanastonopas is envisioned as either open-source software or commercial product, suitable for classroom settings, research projects, or digital humanities work, enabling collaborative term curation and transparent data provenance.

In discussions about digital lexicography, sanastonopas is described as a model for navigable lexical data and reproducible research. Proponents emphasize interoperability, openness, and the ability to map terms across corpora and languages.

See also glossary, lexical database, terminological database, lexical ontology.