Detecting and combining synonymous topics

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• obtain a set of topics associated with a set of content items;
• automatically identify a set of synonymous topics within the set of topics by:
• obtaining a first set of attributes associated with a corresponding first topic in the set of topics and a corresponding second set of attributes associated with a second topic in the set of topics, wherein each set of attributes is obtained from a set of words in a vicinity of the corresponding topic in a subset of the content items containing the corresponding topic, wherein each set of attributes is distinct from the corresponding topic;
• calculating a similarity between the first and second sets of attributes;
• and
• identifying the first and second topics as semantically similar when the similarity exceeds a threshold, wherein semantically similar topics represent synonymous topics;
• in response to identifying the first and second topics as synonymous, merge the first and second topics under a representative topic;
• and
• display the representative topic to a user to improve understanding of the set of content items by the user without requiring the user to manually analyze the set of content items.

A system, comprising:

• a sentiment-analysis non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the system to:
• obtain a set of topics associated with a set of content items;
• automatically identify a set of synonymous topics within the set of topics by:
• obtaining a first set of attributes associated with a first corresponding topic in the set of topics and a second set of attributes associated with a corresponding second topic in the set of topics, wherein each set of attributes is obtained from a set of words in a vicinity of the corresponding topic in a subset of the content items containing the corresponding topic, wherein each set of attributes is distinct from the corresponding topic;
• calculating a similarity between the first and second sets of attributes;
• and
• identifying the first and second topics as semantically similar when the similarity exceeds a threshold, wherein semantically similar topics represent synonymous topics;
• and
• in response to identifying the first and second topics as synonymous, merge the first and second topics under a representative topic;
• and
• a management non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the system to display the representative topic to a user to improve understanding of the set of content items by the user without requiring the user to manually analyze the set of content items.