A word completion method and apparatus are described. The method is applied to a search scenario and is used to complete an incomplete word entered by a user. The method is based on an improved trie. Hot words are stored in some nodes of the trie. In the word completion method, a target node that matches a character string is searched in the trie, and at least one completed word is output to a user based on a hot word stored in the target node. Word completion efficiency is improved, and a case in which a word is recommended to a user when the user enters an excessively short character string is avoided.