A UnitSynonym is an alternate spelling, abbreviation, or variation of a Unit used in a Quantity. It must accurately apply to all products using that Unit.
UnitSynonyms improve searchability and user experience by capturing the different ways a unit might be referred to on product packaging or by shoppers.
Supplier Feeds Use Inconsistent Unit Formats
A single supplier may send 'oz', 'OZ', 'Oz.', and 'ounce' for different products. Without Unit Synonym resolution, each is treated as a different, unknown unit — breaking normalization silently.
Locale Differences Create Unit Mismatches
'Litre' and 'Liter' are the same unit in British and American English. 'Millilitre' and 'milliliter' are the same in two spellings. Without synonym resolution, both create data errors.
Non-Standard Abbreviations Silently Drop Data
When a non-standard unit abbreviation is encountered, most normalization pipelines drop the record silently. Unit Synonym catches every non-standard form before it reaches the pipeline.
How Unit Synonym Works
A maintained synonym layer that resolves every non-standard unit label to a canonical Unit before normalization runs.
01
Resolve Non-Standard Formats at Ingestion
Unit Synonym intercepts every unit label at catalog ingestion time. 'OZ', 'oz.', 'ounce', and 'ounces' all resolve to the canonical 'oz' Unit before any downstream processing runs.
02
Custom Supplier Synonyms
Some suppliers have proprietary abbreviation conventions. Retailer-specific synonym layers can be added on top of the global canonical set — without modifying the base registry.
03
Zero Silent Drops
Unit Synonym ensures that no record is silently dropped due to an unrecognized unit format. Unresolved synonyms surface as actionable errors — not silent data gaps.
Examples of Unit Synonyms
Example of a Unit Synonym that is NOT Valid
"Plastic Bottles" is not a synonym for "Bottles" (too specific—does not apply to all products using the Unit "Bottles")
Ready to resolve every unit format?
See how Unit Synonym ensures every measurement term from every supplier resolves to the right canonical unit.
