# LLM as a reverse dictionary lookup algorithm

> It is easy to look up a meaning when you know the term, but it is not easy to find the term when you only vaguely know the meaning. But thanks to LLMs, this has become tremendously easy. If you roughly describe the meaning and ask whether there is a term for it, there is a high chance you will get a good answer.

It is easy to look up a meaning when you know the term, but it is not easy to find the term when you only vaguely know the meaning. But thanks to [LLMs](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Large%20language%20model.txt), this has become tremendously easy. If you roughly describe the meaning and ask whether there is a term for it, there is a high chance you will get a good answer.

## Comparison with a dictionary

If you have a dictionary, you can easily find the definition (value) using the term (key). Existing search engines are similar to dictionaries.

Conversely, finding the term when you know the definition precisely is called reverse dictionary lookup.

But what if you only know the definition "roughly and loosely"? In that situation, if you wanted to find the term, you had to do a lot of legwork (mostly in search engines). Even if you did find a term, you could not know whether it was exactly the term you needed, or whether there was a better term that you simply failed to find.

But thanks to [LLMs](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Large%20language%20model.txt), finding terms has become relatively easy. If I had to give it a name, I would call it "fuzzy reverse dictionary lookup."

Of course, there can be [hallucinations](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Hallucination%20(AI.txt)), so it is good to additionally verify things like whether the suggested term actually exists or whether it really has that meaning. But confirming the meaning when you already know the term is (as mentioned earlier) an easy task, so it is not much of a problem.

## Examples

- When I asked for a term referring to the phenomenon in which new technology creates a gap in existing norms and confusion arises until new norms are established, it gave me the term [cultural lag](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Cultural%20lag.txt).
- When I asked for a theory related to <language acquisition> that runs counter to Chomsky's <poverty of the stimulus> argument, it gave me the term [iterated learning model](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Iterated%20learning%20model.txt).