diff --git a/src/common/rclconfig.cpp b/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
index 298a1702..fe26e9d4 100644
--- a/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
+++ b/src/common/rclconfig.cpp
@@ -1144,21 +1144,44 @@ string RclConfig::getMimeIconPath(const string &mtype, const string &apptag)
     return path_cat(iconpath, iconname) + ".png";
 }
 
-string RclConfig::getDbDir() const
+// Return path defined by varname. May be absolute or relative to
+// confdir, with default in confdir
+string RclConfig::getConfdirPath(const char *varname, const char *dflt) const
 {
-    string dbdir;
-    if (!getConfParam("dbdir", dbdir)) {
-	LOGERR(("RclConfig::getDbDir: no db directory in configuration\n"));
+    string result;
+    if (!getConfParam(varname, result)) {
+	result = path_cat(getConfDir(), dflt);
     } else {
-	dbdir = path_tildexpand(dbdir);
+	result = path_tildexpand(result);
 	// If not an absolute path, compute relative to config dir
-	if (dbdir.at(0) != '/') {
-	    LOGDEB1(("Dbdir not abs, catting with confdir\n"));
-	    dbdir = path_cat(getConfDir(), dbdir);
+	if (result.at(0) != '/') {
+	    result = path_cat(getConfDir(), result);
 	}
     }
-    LOGDEB1(("RclConfig::getDbDir: dbdir: [%s]\n", dbdir.c_str()));
-    return path_canon(dbdir);
+    return path_canon(result);
+
+}
+
+string RclConfig::getDbDir() const
+{
+    return getConfdirPath("dbdir", "xapiandb");
+}
+
+string RclConfig::getStopfile() const
+{
+    return getConfdirPath("stoplistfile", "stoplist.txt");
+}
+
+string RclConfig::getSynGroupsFile() const
+{
+    return getConfdirPath("syngroupsfile", "syngroups.txt");
+}
+
+// The index status file is fast changing, so it's possible to put it outside
+// of the config directory (for ssds, not sure this is really useful).
+string RclConfig::getIdxStatusFile() const
+{
+    return getConfdirPath("idxstatusfile", "idxstatus.txt");
 }
 
 void RclConfig::urlrewrite(const string& dbdir, string& url) const
@@ -1213,32 +1236,11 @@ bool RclConfig::sourceChanged() const
     return false;
 }
 
-string RclConfig::getStopfile() const
-{
-    return path_cat(getConfDir(), "stoplist.txt");
-}
 string RclConfig::getPidfile() const
 {
     return path_cat(getConfDir(), "index.pid");
 }
 
-// The index status file is fast changing, so it's possible to put it outside
-// of the config directory (for ssds, not sure this is really useful).
-string RclConfig::getIdxStatusFile() const
-{
-    string path;
-    if (!getConfParam("idxstatusfile", path)) {
-	return path_cat(getConfDir(), "idxstatus.txt");
-    } else {
-	path = path_tildexpand(path);
-	// If not an absolute path, compute relative to config dir
-	if (path.at(0) != '/') {
-	    path = path_cat(getConfDir(), path);
-	}
-	return path_canon(path);
-    }
-}
-
 string RclConfig::getWebQueueDir() const
 {
     string webqueuedir;
diff --git a/src/common/rclconfig.h b/src/common/rclconfig.h
index be26eaa1..4a371d50 100644
--- a/src/common/rclconfig.h
+++ b/src/common/rclconfig.h
@@ -171,10 +171,13 @@ class RclConfig {
      * need for other status */
     vector<string> getTopdirs() const;
 
+    string getConfdirPath(const char *varname, const char *dflt) const;
     /** Get database directory */
     string getDbDir() const;
     /** Get stoplist file name */
     string getStopfile() const;
+    /** Get synonym groups file name */
+    string getSynGroupsFile() const;
     /** Get indexing pid file name */
     string getPidfile() const;
     /** Get indexing status file name */
diff --git a/src/common/syngroups.cpp b/src/common/syngroups.cpp
index e72cf122..e6da110b 100644
--- a/src/common/syngroups.cpp
+++ b/src/common/syngroups.cpp
@@ -63,20 +63,29 @@ SynGroups::~SynGroups()
 
 const int LL = 1024;
 
-SynGroups::SynGroups(const string& fn)
+SynGroups::SynGroups()
     : m(new Internal)
 {
+}
+
+bool SynGroups::setfile(const string& fn)
+{
+    LOGDEB(("SynGroups::setfile(%s)\n", fn.c_str()));
     if (!m) {
-	LOGERR(("SynGroups::SynGroups:: new Internal failed: no mem ?\n"));
-	return;
+	LOGERR(("SynGroups:setfile:: new Internal failed: no mem ?\n"));
+	return false;
     }
 
+    // Don't set ok to true.
+    if (fn.empty())
+	return true;
+
     ifstream input;
     input.open(fn.c_str(), ios::in);
     if (!input.is_open()) {
-	LOGERR(("SynGroups::SynGroups:: could not open %s errno %d\n",
+	LOGERR(("SynGroups:setfile:: could not open %s errno %d\n",
 		fn.c_str(), errno));
-	return;
+	return false;
     }	    
 
     char cline[LL];
@@ -91,7 +100,7 @@ SynGroups::SynGroups(const string& fn)
 	if (!input.good()) {
 	    if (input.bad()) {
                 LOGDEB(("Parse: input.bad()\n"));
-		return;
+		return false;
 	    }
 	    // Must be eof ? But maybe we have a partial line which
 	    // must be processed. This happens if the last line before
@@ -130,7 +139,7 @@ SynGroups::SynGroups(const string& fn)
 
 	vector<string> words;
 	if (!stringToStrings(line, words)) {
-	    LOGERR(("SynGroups::SynGroups: %s: bad line %d: %s\n",
+	    LOGERR(("SynGroups:setfile: %s: bad line %d: %s\n",
 		    fn.c_str(), lnum, line.c_str()));
 	    continue;
 	}
@@ -138,7 +147,7 @@ SynGroups::SynGroups(const string& fn)
 	if (words.empty())
 	    continue;
 	if (words.size() == 1) {
-	    LOGDEB(("SynGroups::SynGroups: single term group at line %d ??\n",
+	    LOGDEB(("SynGroups:setfile: single term group at line %d ??\n",
 		    lnum));
 	    continue;
 	}
@@ -148,8 +157,11 @@ SynGroups::SynGroups(const string& fn)
 	     it != words.end(); it++) {
 	    m->terms[*it] = lnum;
 	}
+	LOGDEB(("SynGroups::setfile: group: [%s]\n", 
+		stringsToString(m->groups[lnum]).c_str()));
     }
     m->ok = true;
+    return true;
 }
 
 vector<string> SynGroups::getgroup(const string& term)
diff --git a/src/common/syngroups.h b/src/common/syngroups.h
index 9f3c523b..62a71523 100644
--- a/src/common/syngroups.h
+++ b/src/common/syngroups.h
@@ -26,8 +26,9 @@
 // in a group are equivalent.
 class SynGroups {
 public:
-    SynGroups(const std::string& fname);
+    SynGroups();
     ~SynGroups();
+    bool setfile(const std::string& fname);
     std::vector<std::string> getgroup(const std::string& term);
     bool ok();
 private:
diff --git a/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp b/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
index 40d0e083..ef92b82a 100644
--- a/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
+++ b/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
@@ -762,6 +762,10 @@ bool Db::open(OpenMode mode, OpenError *error)
     }
     if (!m_config->getStopfile().empty())
 	m_stops.setFile(m_config->getStopfile());
+    // Synonyms are only used at query time for now
+    if (mode == DbRO)
+	m_syngroups.setfile(m_config->getSynGroupsFile());
+
     string dir = m_config->getDbDir();
     string ermsg;
     try {
diff --git a/src/rcldb/rcldb.h b/src/rcldb/rcldb.h
index 1d73ab4e..70e87dc6 100644
--- a/src/rcldb/rcldb.h
+++ b/src/rcldb/rcldb.h
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include "rclconfig.h"
 #include "utf8iter.h"
 #include "textsplit.h"
+#include "syngroups.h"
 
 using std::string;
 using std::vector;
@@ -480,6 +481,9 @@ private:
      * after init */
     // Stop terms: those don't get indexed.
     StopList m_stops;
+    // Synonym groups
+    SynGroups m_syngroups;
+
     // Truncation length for stored meta fields
     int         m_idxMetaStoredLen;
     // This is how long an abstract we keep or build from beginning of
diff --git a/src/rcldb/rclterms.cpp b/src/rcldb/rclterms.cpp
index 132e509d..8d0e4abd 100644
--- a/src/rcldb/rclterms.cpp
+++ b/src/rcldb/rclterms.cpp
@@ -235,7 +235,8 @@ bool Db::termMatch(int typ_sens, const string &lang, const string &_term,
 	}
 
     } else {
-	// Expansion is STEM or NONE (which may still need case/diac exp)
+	// Expansion is STEM or NONE (which may still need synonyms
+	// and case/diac exp)
 
 	vector<string> lexp;
 	if (diac_sensitive && case_sensitive) {
@@ -273,6 +274,30 @@ bool Db::termMatch(int typ_sens, const string &lang, const string &_term,
 	    }
 	    LOGDEB(("ExpTerm: stem exp-> %s\n", stringsToString(exp1).c_str()));
 
+	    lexp.clear();
+	    // Expand the result for synonyms. Note that doing it here
+	    // means that multi-term synonyms will not work
+	    // (e.g. stakhanovist -> "hard at work". We would have to
+	    // separate the multi-word expansions for our caller to
+	    // add them as phrases to the query. Not impossible, but
+	    // let's keep it at single words for now.
+	    if (m_syngroups.ok()) {
+		LOGDEB(("ExpTerm: got syngroups\n"));
+		for (vector<string>::const_iterator it = exp1.begin(); 
+		     it != exp1.end(); it++) {
+		    vector<string> sg = m_syngroups.getgroup(*it);
+		    if (!sg.empty()) {
+			LOGDEB(("ExpTerm: syns: %s -> %s\n", 
+				it->c_str(), stringsToString(sg).c_str()));
+			lexp.insert(lexp.end(), sg.begin(), sg.end());
+		    }
+		}
+		sort(lexp.begin(), lexp.end());
+		lexp.erase(unique(lexp.begin(), lexp.end()), lexp.end());
+		// Keep result in exp1 for next step
+		exp1.swap(lexp);
+	    }
+
 	    // Expand the resulting list for case (all stemdb content
 	    // is lowercase)
 	    lexp.clear();