A method for providing a transient electronic dictionary that travels with
an original electronic document is provided. An author of an electronic
document may generate a transient electronic dictionary that is linked
with the original electronic document such that the transient electronic
dictionary is transmitted along with the original electronic document
when the original electronic document is distributed. At a recipient
computer system, when the original electronic document is accessed, the
associated transient electronic dictionary is loaded by the word
processing application. The loaded transient electronic dictionary is
used to expand the permanent electronic dictionary present in the
recipient computer system temporarily. The word processing application
may then resolve words in the original electronic document using the
loaded transient electronic dictionary entries.