Patent ID: 8832550

Claim:
An electronic dictionary device comprising: a dictionary storage module which stores a dictionary that causes a plurality of entry words to correspond to explanations of the entry words; a touch panel display module which displays text; a cursor specify module which specifies one character of a character string in text displayed on the touch panel display module according to a cursor operation; a touch specify module which specifies a character string in text displayed on the touch panel display module according to a touch operation; a cursor touch determine module which determines whether: (i) one character of the character string in the displayed text is specified according to the cursor operation, or (ii) a character string in the displayed text is specified according to the touch operation, wherein a character type of the specified text is determined to set an appropriate one of a Japanese-language dictionary database and an English-language dictionary database as the dictionary for retrieving explanations of entry words; a longest length match order search mode setting module which sets a longest length match order search mode when it is determined by the cursor touch determine module that said one character in the displayed text is specified according to the cursor operation; a complete match mode setting module which sets a complete match mode when it is determined by the cursor touch determine module that the character string in the displayed text is specified according to the touch operation; and a search module which: (i) when the longest length match order search mode is set by the longest length match order search mode setting module, retrieves entry words in the dictionary stored in the dictionary storage module in descending order of length of an entry word that matches the character string whose first character is said one character in the displayed text specified by the cursor specify module, and (ii) when the complete match mode is set by the complete match mode setting module, retrieves an entry word that matches the character string in the displayed text specified by the touch specify module from the dictionary stored in the dictionary storage module; and wherein search module displays an explanation of a retrieved entry word.