This is the first book to cover the entire topic of word sense disambiguation (WSD) including: all the major algorithms, techniques, performance measures, results, philosophical issues, and applications. Leading researchers in the field have contributed chapters that synthesize and provide an overview of past and state-of-the-art research across the field. The editors have carefully organized the chapters into sub-topics. Researchers and lecturers will learn about the full range of what has been done and where the field is headed. Developers will learn which technique(s) will apply to their particular application, how to build and evaluate systems, and what performance to expect. An accompanying Website provides links to resources for WSD and a searchable index of the book.