1. An apparatus for rough classification of words for inputting a word image and selecting vocabulary similar to it among the vocabulary stored in a vocabulary storage device in advance, comprising: a candidate character selecting device for, of said word image, selecting candidate characters that are image areas conforming to predetermined conditions; a character recognizing device for converting into character codes the image areas selected by said candidate character selecting device; a word describing device for generating word description representing said word image by using the character codes converted by character recognizing device; and a vocabulary selecting device for checking the word description generated by said word describing device against the vocabulary recorded in said vocabulary storage device so as to select and output vocabulary that can be consistently checked.