Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for using alternate words as an indication of word sense. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a particular term. The method further includes identifying a first alternate term and a second alternate term for the particular term, and identifying a first sequence of terms that occurs in a text corpus, and includes the particular term among its terms. The method further includes determining a number of occurrences of a second sequence of terms in the text corpus. The second sequence of terms differs from the first sequence of terms only in that the first alternate term is substituted for the particular term and determining a number of occurrences of a third sequence of terms in the text corpus. The third sequence of terms differs from the first sequence of terms.