On Problems of Address in an Automatic Dictionary of French

2.1 In the case of long words, part only of the letters contained in the word would be enough to provide an adequate address, that is to achieve an alphabetical classification. As a matter of fact, the last letters of a long word (say a word of more than ten letters) do not play any part whatsoever as classificators. The first four or five letters are very often sufficient; subsequent letters provide an over-definition which, from the point of view of address only, remains useless.