Soundex

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What Does Soundex Mean?

Soundex is a phonetic algorithm developed in the early 1900s by Robert C. Russell and Margaret King Odell. It was used in the U.S. census from 1890 to 1920. It enjoyed a resurgence in the 1960s and is now archived by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

Techopedia Explains Soundex

Soundex attempts to find similar names or homophones using phonetic notation. The program retains letters according to detailed equations, to match individual names for the purposes of large volume research.

With the advent of high-powered modern computers, and then of natural language processing later in the 20th century, technologies like Soundex became relatively primitive and largely obsolete. Modern algorithms work on a much more detailed basis than Soundex’s system of phonetic markers. However, these types of technologies are preserved in the historical record to show the art of algorithm development and modern research.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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