Almost every synonym set in OTE is illustrated with a carefully chosen example of the word in use in the relevant sense. These are authentic examples of natural usage taken from the Oxford English Corpus (see Linguistic evidence below). The examples can therefore be trusted for guidance on using unfamiliar words in an idiomatic way, but it does not follow that each synonym given could be used in the example, in place of the headword.
Where part of an example is printed in bold italic type, this indicates that some or all of the synonyms can be substituted for that particular phrase, not just for the headword alone. Thus at attached, the example given is:
| she was very attached to her brother |
because the synonyms are equivalent to attached to:
| fond of, devoted to, full of regard for, full of admiration for; affectionate towards, tender towards, caring towards; informal mad about, crazy about, nuts about. |