1. A method for modifying word annotations in an annotated text base, comprising: creating, by a processor, an index of word annotations by: creating an annotation array that indexes annotations assigned to terms in the annotated text base, the annotation array comprising annotations and references for each annotation from the annotated text base; and creating an index that indexes the annotated terms in the annotated text base, the index comprising a list of all words in the annotated text base and for each word, the assigned annotation and a list of references; modifying a select annotation to an updated annotation; modifying all annotation occurrences in the index that match the select annotation, to the updated annotation; and updating the annotation array with a reference to the modified occurrences of the select annotation in the annotated text base.