1. A method in a computer system for, in a representation of one or more dictionaries comprising a plurality of text segments, characterizing the sense of an occurrence of a polysemous word, the method comprising the steps of: selecting a plurality of dictionary text segments each containing a first word; identifying among the selected dictionary text segments a first occurrence of a second word, the first occurrence of the second word having no word sense characterization; identifying among the selected dictionary text segments a second occurrence of the second word, the second occurrence of the second word having a word sense characterization; and attributing to the first occurrence of the second word the word sense characterization of the second occurrence of the second word.