The purpose of the invention is to provide a method and a device for providing an input candidate item. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, establishing or updating a user word
bank corresponding to a user according to a historical input
record of the user; then, acquiring an input character string of the user; retrieving by use of indexing information of the user word
bank according to the input character string so as to acquire one or more pieces of vocabulary
entry data information corresponding to the indexing information, which are used as one or more input candidate items corresponding to the input character string. Compared with the prior art, after the historical input
record of the user is processed, the prefix matching characteristics are supported by using the hierarchical retrieval structure of the
record, the method can provide a complete input candidate item to the user when the user inputs a few input character strings, thus the candidate result of a
home page is expanded, the rapid and intelligent input is realized, the input demand of the user is satisfied, the input efficiency of the user is enhanced and the user experience is improved.