passing a string to a function by mouse-click on it?

[aa]

I have a section of a website which is heavily loaded with technical
terminoogy. I have a Glossary database running from ASP code which accepts a
string and returnd it's meaning (is there is meaning).
Now I want a cusotmer, instead of copying a word into a field, just click a
word. I do not make all the words hyperlink. Is there any smart way to
acheive this? I realise that this is a clent-side question, but perhaps
someone can direct me into correct direction?

 

[William Morris]

Well, what happens when the user clicks on a word? The smartest way to make
a word clickable is to hyperlink. If you wrap each word in a clickable
span with a style to simulate the look of a link, for instance, you have to
wait for the browser to apply the relevant styles to every span on the page,
where a hyperlink gets its formatting immediately with no waiting.

 

[aa]

yes, hyperlinnk is hte first which comes to one's mind, but it is not to
smart wrapping each word into <a> tags.
I quess that is a word is clicked, there is a way to capture which word has
been clicked and pass it to a function.