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In English, when I want to know the subtle differences in meaning between similar words I consult a thesaurus's synonym discussion. To give an example of this, see halfway down Merriam-Webster's thesaurus page for the word "ponder". Several English thesauruses have them, but not all thesauruses do.
Is there a term for this which Japanese thesauruses conventionally use?
The similar section in a Japanese thesaurus names itself 使い分け—"usage differentiation" or "using accordingly", and I think this is a pretty stable choice of word. It however does not contain the word "synonym", which, in the case you want specify, could be added like 類語の使い分け.
