soundex


soundex

(algorithm, text)An algorithm for encoding a word so thatsimilar sounding words encode the same. The first letter iscopied unchanged then subsequent letters are encoded asfollows:

bfpv -> "1"cgjkqsxz? -> "2"dt -> "3"l -> "4"mn? -> "5"r -> "6"

Other characters are ignored and repeated characters areencoded as though they were a single character. Encodingstops when the resulting string is four characters long,adding trailing "0"s if it is shorter. For example, "SMITH"or "SMYTHE" would both be encoded as "S530".

Soundex

A system for coding English words based on their sound rather than their spelling. Developed in the early 20th century, a Soundex is used to index and match words. The vowels are dropped, and all remaining consonants are assigned three digits except for the first, which is the first letter of the word. There have been several variants of Soundex, but there are far more sophisticated methods for coding speech in today's voice recognition systems. See voice recognition.