diff --git a/w2v-server.pl b/w2v-server.pl
index c92400b..0b8f178 100644
--- a/w2v-server.pl
+++ b/w2v-server.pl
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
 
 float *M;
 char *vocab;
+HV* wordhash;
 long long words, size;
 int num_threads=20;
 
@@ -128,6 +129,13 @@
 		}
 	}
   fclose(f);
+
+  wordhash = newHV();
+	for (a = 0; a < words; a++) {
+    hv_store(wordhash, &vocab[a * max_w], strlen(&vocab[a * max_w]), newSVuv(a), 0);
+    //    fprintf(stderr, "%lld: %s\n", a, &vocab[a * max_w]);
+  }
+      
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -142,7 +150,8 @@
 	long long a, b, c, d, cn, bi[100], *besti;
 	char ch;
 	knn *nbs = NULL;
-
+  SV **svp;
+  
 	besti = malloc(N * sizeof(long long));
 	bestd = malloc(N * sizeof(float));
 
@@ -167,8 +176,14 @@
 	}
 	cn++;
 	for (a = 0; a < cn; a++) {
-		for (b = 0; b < words; b++) if (!strcmp(&vocab[b * max_w], st[a])) break;
-		if (b == words) b = -1;
+    svp = hv_fetch(wordhash,st[a],strlen(st[a]),0);
+    if (svp) {
+      b = SvUV(*svp);
+    } else {
+      b = -1;
+    }
+    //		for (b = 0; b < words; b++) if (!strcmp(&vocab[b * max_w], st[a])) break;
+    //		if (b == words) b = -1;
 		bi[a] = b;
 		fprintf(stderr, "Word: \"%s\"  Position in vocabulary: %lld\n", st[a], bi[a]);
 		if (b == -1) {