System and method for semi-automatic creation and maintenance of query expansion rules

A system and method enable semi-automated generation of query expansion rules for searching a knowledge base. Candidate synonymy pairs are automatically extracted from queries made by users when searching a knowledge base. Synonymy rules are defined, based on the extracted candidate synonymy pairs, and may be context dependent. Query expansion rules based on the defined synonymy rules can then be exported to a storage medium for use in expansion of new user queries when searching the knowledge base.