A data structure for use in hyphenation is created by including hyphen codes at the acceptable hyphenation points of words and then collapsing the words into a minimal state determinized FSM data structure. The transitions of the data structure are sorted so that a hyphen code that has alternatives is positioned before its alternatives. The data structure is then encoded for compactness. In searching with a word, if a mismatch occurs in the branch of the data structure that depends from a hyphen code, the search continues with its alternatives, because a match could be found in a branch depending from one of the alternatives. The data structure may be accessed with a hyphenated word to check hyphenation or spelling. It may be accessed with an unhyphenated word to retrieve its hyphenation points. It may be accessed with a number corresponding to a word to retrieve that word with its hyphenation points. Retrieved hyphenation points may be used in selecting where to hyphenate a word that has more than one hyphenation point, as in justification of text.