Associate a word with a value?

[Weasel]

Is it possible to associate a word with a value. For example if I type the word "the" into a cell I'd want that cell to have a value of 8 so if I included it in a sum formula it would add 8 to the total sum.

 

[NBVC]

You could create a table on the side somewhere listing the words and their corresponding "number". Then you could use Vlookup() to extract the correct number.

e.g. =Vlookup(A1,X1:Y10,2,0) would extract the corresponding number in column Y to the looked up value in column X, where the word to look up is in A1.

This could be incorporated into your summing formula...