MySQL query with 100's of WHERE Clauses

[jbradley04]

I am doing a MySQL query in which the WERE clause contains an array that would have up to 100's of clauses.  
Basically I have  a DB of words.  When people enter letters to search for words containing those letters, and only those letters, it will at that to the query.  For Example:

* The code below is extremely abbreviated but you should get the point.  

<?php
/* Say someone enters "abc"
So I have it setup that  $word = 'a' , OR `word` = 'b' , OR `word` = 'c' , OR `word` = 'ab' , OR `word` = 'ac' , OR `word` = 'ba' , OR `word` = 'ca' , OR `word` = 'cb' , OR `word` = 'abc' , OR `word` = 'cba' , OR `word` = 'bca'

*/

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `words` WHERE `word` = ".$words." ORDER BY `word` DESC");
?>

Well this turns out to be quick with "abc" but if you enter abcdefg the combinations would be thousands and brutally slow!  

Is there a way to speed things up with a better, more optimized query?

Thanks for your help!

[mac_gyver]

see the posts near the end of this thread - http://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/279088-question-about-a-query-i-thought-would-be-a-lot-simpler/

[jbradley04]

Well, that it is definitely the most progress I have made for speed! The problem is when I enter

 

abcdhlkd

 

blackball comes as a result.  This cannot be though because there is only one l

 

Any thoughts?

[Barand]

`word` = 'a' OR `word` = 'b' OR `word` = 'c' OR `word` = 'ab' OR `word` = 'ac' OR `word` = 'ba' OR `word` = 'ca'
OR `word` = 'cb' OR `word` = 'abc' OR `word` = 'cba' OR `word` = 'bca'

*/

can be simplified to

`word` IN ('a', 'b', 'c', 'ab', 'ac', 'ba', 'ca', 'cb', 'abc', 'cba', 'bca')

[jbradley04]

Ok, Great!  That works awesome!  

I really appreciate all the help!