9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising binning the word lattice to organize each word lattice in columns containing the words candidates and associated confidence scores, each confidence score defined as a likelihood that the word candidate is a possible substitute for a query term.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising binning the word lattice to organize each word lattice in columns containing the words candidates and associated confidence scores, each confidence score defined as a likelihood that the word candidate is a possible substitute for a query term. 14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising: quantizing a plurality of confidence scores into a discrete number of confidence scores; and decorating a word candidate with a confidence score by appending to the word candidate a suffix corresponding to that confidence score.