A search system for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query is provided. The search system includes a processor, a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user, the search query having at least one search query term, and a query processing module that analyzes the search query term to identify candidate synonym words. The query processing module also determines which of the candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to the search query term, and in a same sense as the search query term. In addition, the search system includes a search engine that executes a search based on the search query term and the equivalent terms.