diff --git a/collocatordb.cc b/collocatordb.cc
index cf5d339..a7ac04a 100644
--- a/collocatordb.cc
+++ b/collocatordb.cc
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@
 using namespace std;
 
 namespace rocksdb {
-  class Collocator {
-  public:
+    class Collocator {
+    public:
     uint64_t w2;
     uint64_t raw;
     double pmi;
@@ -248,6 +248,7 @@
     void read_vocab(string fname);
     
   public:
+    string getWord(uint32_t w1);
     CollocatorDB(const char *db_name, bool read_only);
 
     // public interface of CollocatorDB.
@@ -661,6 +662,10 @@
 
 };
 
+string rocksdb::CollocatorDB::getWord(uint32_t w1) {
+  return _vocab[w1].word;
+}
+
 string rocksdb::CollocatorDB::collocators2json(vector<Collocator> collocators) {
   ostringstream s;
   int i = 0;