10. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions that are not a signal stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: identify a given word W to be entered into an index; determine a plurality of word senses S n associated with the word W; determine a plurality of hypernyms H n associated with the plurality of word senses S n , the plurality of hypernyms H n comprising a tree-like inheritance hierarchy of hypernyms associated with each of the plurality of word senses S n ; establish a word hypernym weight WHW(H n ,W) for each of the plurality of hypernyms H n based on 
 WHW ( H n W )=Σ p ( S n |W )f( H n ,S n ) where the word hypernym weight WHW(H n ,W) being equal to a sum, over the plurality of word senses S n , of the product of the probability p of the sense of given word S n |W and a function f(H n ,S n ) defined as having a value of one when a given hypernym H is an inherited hypernym of the plurality of word senses Sn, and having a value of zero otherwise; and store information associated with the hypernym H into the index based on the word hypernym weight WHW(H n W).
10. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions that are not a signal stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: identify a given word W to be entered into an index; determine a plurality of word senses S n associated with the word W; determine a plurality of hypernyms H n associated with the plurality of word senses S n , the plurality of hypernyms H n comprising a tree-like inheritance hierarchy of hypernyms associated with each of the plurality of word senses S n ; establish a word hypernym weight WHW(H n ,W) for each of the plurality of hypernyms H n based on 
 WHW ( H n W )=Σ p ( S n |W )f( H n ,S n ) where the word hypernym weight WHW(H n ,W) being equal to a sum, over the plurality of word senses S n , of the product of the probability p of the sense of given word S n |W and a function f(H n ,S n ) defined as having a value of one when a given hypernym H is an inherited hypernym of the plurality of word senses Sn, and having a value of zero otherwise; and store information associated with the hypernym H into the index based on the word hypernym weight WHW(H n W). 11. The computer storage medium of claim 10 , further causing the computer to store the plurality of word senses S n into the index.