8. A system for locally presenting to a human user an alphanumeric message comprising a sequence of words received over a telephone line as a series of tone signals entered through the keypad of a remote tone-generating telephone dialing device, said system including: one or more databases of words, said words being arranged in records and each record including a numeric record number; means for converting received tone signals into electrical signals, each electrical signal representing the activation of either a numeric key or a control character key on the keypad, each numeric key signal representing a single alphabetic character or number; means for assembling the electrical signals into a series of input units, each input unit consisting of one or more numeric key signals followed by a control key signal and representing one word in the sequence of words; means for addressing said one or more databases using the input units serially as addresses to locate records having numeric record numbers matching the input units; means for locally outputting the message by serially presenting words stored in any such records in a sequence and in a form perceptible to the human user of the system, said last-named means identifying and presenting multiple words having the same numeric record number to permit the human user to select the most appropriate of the multiple words from the sequential context in which it appears.
8. A system for locally presenting to a human user an alphanumeric message comprising a sequence of words received over a telephone line as a series of tone signals entered through the keypad of a remote tone-generating telephone dialing device, said system including: one or more databases of words, said words being arranged in records and each record including a numeric record number; means for converting received tone signals into electrical signals, each electrical signal representing the activation of either a numeric key or a control character key on the keypad, each numeric key signal representing a single alphabetic character or number; means for assembling the electrical signals into a series of input units, each input unit consisting of one or more numeric key signals followed by a control key signal and representing one word in the sequence of words; means for addressing said one or more databases using the input units serially as addresses to locate records having numeric record numbers matching the input units; means for locally outputting the message by serially presenting words stored in any such records in a sequence and in a form perceptible to the human user of the system, said last-named means identifying and presenting multiple words having the same numeric record number to permit the human user to select the most appropriate of the multiple words from the sequential context in which it appears. 9. The system as defined in claim 8 further including means responsive to a predetermined sequence of control key signals for sending an input unit to the presenting means in the form of a sequence of one or more numbers without addressing a database.