PURPOSE: To reduce an access area and to shorten the retrieving time for an input word by retrieving the area which is specified by the first character of the input word with the second character of the word.

CONSTITUTION: The character data inputted from an input part 1 are stored continuously in a data memory 5 until the input of the word punctuation data. When the word punctuation data is inputted, the words are retrieved. Then the first character of an input word is identified and an access is given to a big headline storage part 41. Thus the offset value of a crosshead storage part 42 is read out, and the second character of the input word is identified. An access is given to the second character from the offset position of the part 42 and the header of the code of the second character is retrieved. Hereafter the accesses are given to a subhead storage part 43 from the part 42 and to a semantic memory part 44 from the part 43 respectively. Thus the meaning of the input word and other information are read out and sent to a display part 3.