[dict-beta] Fwd: I need a reverse dictionary

[Rik F. <fa...@di...>]

I'm forwarding your message to the dic...@di... mailing list, which
is the best place for discussing these ideas.  The problem with making a
reverse indices is that they tend to be several times larger than the
original database.

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Reply-To: du...@io...
From: duane voth <du...@au...>
To: web...@di...
Subject: I need a reverse dictionary
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:10:36 -0600

Today I'm looking for a word that means "to dispell an overly serious
mood or attitude".  This is of course the purpose of humor, but "to
humorize"  something doesn't have the flair I want.  "Levitize" is
even worse... do you see my dilemma?

What if we were allowed to search the text of all definitions of words
in a dictionary in a way that would return a list of single lines with
the word on the left (linked to the definition of course) and the
context where the search term was found on the right:

	search: obstacle

	<others>
	barrier   ....carpentry obstruction, stockade, or other obstacle....
	dilemma   ....state of things in which evils or obstacles....
	<others>

Searching thesauri in a similar fashion might also be helpful.

duane
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