test-words.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from itertools import product
from nltk.corpus import wordnet


def test_words(word1: str, word2: str):
    meanings1 = wordnet.synsets(word1, lang="eng")
    meanings2 = wordnet.synsets(word2, lang="eng")
    similarities = []
    for sense1, sense2 in product(meanings1, meanings2):
        score = sense1.wup_similarity(sense2)
        similarities.append((score, sense1, sense2))

    similarities = sorted(similarities, key=lambda tup: tup[1], reverse=True)
    for score, sense1, sense2 in similarities:
        if score is None:
            continue
        print("{:3.2f} - {} {}".format(score, sense1, sense2))


def main():
    test_words("burglary", "shoplifting")
    test_words("robbery", "vandalism")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Console output:

0.87 - Synset('burglary.n.01') Synset('shoplifting.n.01')
0.64 - Synset('robbery.n.01') Synset('vandalism.n.01')
0.60 - Synset('looting.n.01') Synset('vandalism.n.01')

Inspired by: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41793842/wordnet-python-words-similarity