Figure 1: An example of the monolingual and cross-lingual reverse dictionary. (pg. 1)
As opposed to a forward dictionary, a reverse dictionary is one that maps definitions to words. For example, we have OneLook , which is an inverted-index based RD that is commercially available on the Web. We also have wantwords, which is a distributional-semantics-based RD (BERT).
What can RD be used for? Vocabulary를 주체적으로 늘리는 연습할 때 매우 유용하게 쓰일수 있다.
e.g. Improve your Vocabulary: Stop saying VERY!
또한, Tip-of-the-Tongue 현상 (설단현상)에 대한 효과적인 해결책이기도 함. (e.g. 아 그거 있잖아.. 그거 뭐라고 하더라? 데이터의 개수가 충분히 많으면 정규분포에 가까워진다는 정리.. 그.. central 어쩌고... 아 맞아!! central limit theorem! )