An error correction method and device for a search term, the method comprising: recognizing an erroneous search term (S101); calculating, using a weighted edit-distance algorithm, the weighted edit-distance between the search term and a pre-acquired hot word, wherein, regarding the operations of converting the search term into the hot word, during the process of calculating the weighted edit-distance, character insertion operations, character deletion operations, form-similar or sound-similar character replacement operation, non-form-similar or non-sound-similar character replacement operation and character exchanging operation, are respectively weighted with different set numerical values (S102); selecting, according to the weighted edit-distance and the popularity of the hot word, a preset number of hot words for error correction prompt (S103). The error correction accuracy of erroneous search terms can be improved.
