1. A word recognition apparatus comprising: input unit for inputting a word image representing a plurality of characters; word candidate selection unit for recognizing the word image input by the input unit and selecting a first word candidate and a second word candidate based on a plurality of words registered in a word dictionary; and verification unit for comparing the first word candidate and the second word candidate character by character and verifying a likelihood of the first word candidate based on an evaluation value obtained when the word image is recognized by characters determined as unmatched.