1. Apparatus for generating at least one abstract that is useful during information searching and retrieval procedures, comprising: 1. means for sensing information comprising individual words in a selected language, each word comprising one or more individual characters; 2. means for categorizing selected ones only of the characters in said words into predefined character groups that are based on a probability distribution of characters in the language selected; 3. means maintaining a count of the number of characters categorized into each of said predefined character groups; and 4. means for storing said count as an abstract of said information.