Context-Based Generation of Semantically-Similar Phrases

A computer system processes a document. A user viewing a displayed text is monitored and it is determined that the user is experiencing difficulty understanding a query phrase in a displayed text, wherein the displayed text is translated from a first language to a second language. One or more alternative phrases are generated for the query phrase by determining a plurality of candidate phrases based on the context of the query phrase and a tone of the displayed text, scoring each of the plurality of candidate phrases, and selecting a candidate phrase to be the alternative phrase based on the score of the candidate phrase. The one or more alternative phrases are presented to the user. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and program product for processing a document in substantially the same manner described above.