Update and Insert Statement taking forever
Thanks for updating that you are using Microsoft SQL Server, which does support Full Text Indexing. (As do many other versions of SQL servers.)

First of all your query is using a WHERE (Word LIKE @partialWord) which means that if there is a prefix wildcard (e.g. '%tion') the whole table has to be scanned and the contents of the Word column likewise scanned. 

That is the base cost of this query.

Therefore, you need to investigate some other method of finding the partial words. For example, full text indexing (if available to you) may give you other options to use when finding %partial% words.

Create a full text index on the Predictions table for the Word column. This can be done through SSMS or by a script. This will populate the keywords table in the FTI catalog tables. Example from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187317.aspx

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX pk_PredictionsID ON dbo.Predictions(PredictionsID);
CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG ft AS DEFAULT;
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON dbo.Predictions(Word) 
   KEY INDEX pk_PredictionsID 
   WITH STOPLIST = OFF;


Then here is a sample script that would help you to then find all the rows with wildcards.

DECLARE @SearchText NVARCHAR(2000)
SET @SearchText = ''

DECLARE @Pattern NVARCHAR(100)
SET @Pattern = '%colat%'

SELECT @SearchText = @SearchText + display_term + ' OR ' 
FROM sys.dm_fts_index_keywords ( DB_ID('DBName'),
    object_id('Predictions') )
   WHERE display_term like @Pattern

SELECT @SearchText = LEFT (@SearchText, LEN(@SearchText) - 3)
-- Contents "chocolate OR percolator" in my test case

SELECT * FROM Predictions
WHERE CONTAINS(*, @SearchText)


By building a full text query string that includes all strings containing the pattern joined by the OR operator, it allows Full Text Search to then directly access the rows that contain one (or more) of the words.  This should be a lot faster than scanning the table.