PURPOSE: To construct a system with little resources and to obtain superior operability by detaching a dictionary from a terminal constituting an interface with a user and providing the dictionary in common to plural terminals.

CONSTITUTION: The system consists of plural terminals 1 and a server 4 provided with a dictionary 5 which is provided in common to the terminals 1 and which controls word information. The terminals 1 process the retrieval request of word information as against the server 4. The server 4 specifies corresponding word information by retrieving the dictionary 5 in correspondence with the retrieval request and processes specified word information so that it is transmitted to the terminal 1 being a retrieval request source. Thus, the system can be constructed with little resources and superior operability can be obtained.