PURPOSE: To perform high-speed postprocessing by obtaining a word dictionary of hierarchical structure, and collating words, hierarchy by hierarchy, at a part which corresponds to the number of input characters.

CONSTITUTION: Candidate characters in plural orders, outputted from a recognition part 1, are held in a character matrix register 2, and divided into a section 2-1 and a section 2-2. In the section 2-1, candidate characters of the high order hierarchy are held, and in the section 2-2, candidate characters of the low order hierarchy are held. Then, an order register 3 reads the candidate characters out of the section 2-1 or 2-2 successively on the basis of a control signal from a matching circuit 6 to set them, and those candidate characters are matched with words read out of a word dictionary 7 successively, thereby outputting matching results.