$query = sprintf("SELECT id, word FROM words WHERE word = '%s'", myaddslashes(escape(trim(uservar('synonym_new')))));
 $db->query($query);
 $word_id = 0;
 $exists = 0;
 $existing_id = 0;
 # make sure the comparison is case-sensitive:
 while ($db->next_record()) {
     if ($db->f('word') == escape(trim(uservar('synonym_new')))) {
         $exists = 1;
         $existing_id = $db->f('id');
         break;
     }
 }
 if (!$exists) {
     # word does not exists in database yet
     $word_id = $db->nextid("words");
     $lookup_word = trim(getLookupWord(uservar('synonym_new')));
     if ($lookup_word == trim(uservar('synonym_new'))) {
         $lookup_word = "NULL";
     } else {
         $lookup_word = "'" . myaddslashes(escape($lookup_word)) . "'";
     }
     $query = sprintf("INSERT INTO words\n\t\t\t\t(id, word, lookup) VALUES (%d, '%s', %s)", $word_id, myaddslashes(escape(trim(uservar('synonym_new')))), $lookup_word);
     $db->query($query);
 } else {
     $db->next_record();
     $word_id = $existing_id;
 }
 if ($word_id == 0) {
     die("No word_id found.");
 }