From the update 2 and after narrowing down the problem scope, we can easily find that there is a brace missing at the end of the function addWord. The compiler will never explicitly identify such a syntax error. instead, it will assume that the missing function definition located in some other object file. The linker will complain about it and hence directly will be categorized under one of the broad the error phrases which is identifier is undefined. Reasonably, because with the current syntax the next function definition (in this case is ac_search) will be included under the addWord scope. Hence, it is not a global function anymore. And that is why compiler will not see this function outside addWord and will throw this error message stating that there is no such a function. A very good elaboration about the compiler and the linker can be found in this article
