t9.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Get a sample dictionary here:
#   http://labs.kitiyo.com/files/t9.dic

umask 077
NUMN=/tmp/numn.$$
trap "exit 1" HUP INT PIPE QUIT TERM
trap "rm -f $DICTN $NUMN" EXIT

cat t9.dic | tr a-z 22233344455566677778889999 > $NUMN

if [ $# -eq 0 ] ; then
    echo "Usage : t9.sh "
    exit 1;
else   
    paste -d: $NUMN t9.dic | grep "^$1" | cut -d":" -f2 | sort
fi

Nice. Shown blackdog? :)

Who's blackdog?

Mark Wotton. http://predictive.shimweasel.com/

I don't think he would be very interested, because there's no prediction going on here (i.e. I'm ignoring the hard part of the problem).