KWIC is an acronym for Key Word In Context, the most common format for concordance lines. The term KWIC was first coined by Hans Peter Luhn. The system was based on a concept called keyword in titles which was first proposed for Manchester libraries in 1864 by Andrea Crestadoro.
A KWIC index is formed by sorting and aligning the words within an article title to allow each word (except the stop words) in titles to be searchable alphabetically in the index. It was a useful indexing method for technical manuals before computerized full text search became common.
For example, the title statement of this article and the Wikipedia slogan would appear as follows in a KWIC index. A KWIC index usually uses a wide layout to allow the display of maximum 'in context' information (not shown in the following example).
| KWIC is an | acronym for Key Word In Context, ... | page 1 |
| ... Key Word In Context, the most | common format for concordance lines. | page 1 |
| ... the most common format for | concordance lines. | page 1 |
| ... is an acronym for Key Word In | Context, the most common format ... | page 1 |
| Wikipedia, The Free | Encyclopedia | page 0 |
| ... In Context, the most common | format for concordance lines. | page 1 |
| Wikipedia, The | Free Encyclopedia | page 0 |
| KWIC is an acronym for | Key Word In Context, the most ... | page 1 |
| KWIC is an acronym for Key Word ... | page 1 | |
| ... common format for concordance | lines. | page 1 |
| ... for Key Word In Context, the | most common format for concordance ... | page 1 |
| Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia | page 0 | |
| KWIC is an acronym for Key | Word In Context, the most common ... | page 1 |
The term permuted index is another name for a KWIC index, referring to the fact that it indexes all cyclic permutations of the headings. Books composed of many short sections with their own descriptive headings, most notably collections of manual pages, often ended with a permuted index section, allowing the reader to easily find a section by any word from its heading. This practice is no longer common.
Read more about Key Word In Context: References in Literature
Famous quotes containing the words key word, key, word and/or context:
“The key word in my plays is “perhaps.””
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“This is the Key of the Kingdom:
In that Kingdom is a city;”
—Unknown. This Is the Key (l. 1–2)
“You have never by a word or a deed given me one moment’s uneasiness; on the contrary I have felt perpetual gratitude to heaven for having given me, in you, a source of so much pure and unmixed happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Parents are led to believe that they must be consistent, that is, always respond to the same issue the same way. Consistency is good up to a point but your child also needs to understand context and subtlety . . . much of adult life is governed by context: what is appropriate in one setting is not appropriate in another; the way something is said may be more important than what is said. . . .”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)