WordPress as thesaurus/dictionnary: what approach?

I would create custom post types and custom taxonomy, taking the standard “Posts” out of the loop. You can then have two separate Taxonomies (Tag systems) for synonyms and antonyms.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types

http://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies

You can then use a plugin like Gravity Forms to have your users register for the site and submit their words, which can be turned into posts automatically.

http://www.gravityforms.com/

If this is all greek you may want a WordPress dev for help. Let me know if you would need help and if this answer helps!