metaphone
An {algorithm} for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. It's similar to
{soundex} in purpose, but as it knows the basic rules of
English pronunciation it's more accurate. The higher accuracy
doesn't come free, though, metaphone requires more
computational power as well as more storage capacity, but
neither of these requirements are usually prohibitive. It is
in the public domain so it can be freely implemented.
Metaphone was developed by Lawrence Philips
. It is described in ["Practical
Algorithms for Programmers", Binstock & Rex, Addison Wesley,
1995].
(1998-12-22)