I figured out how to configure phpMyAdmin so I can use the "relation view" to relate tables together via PK/FK. What I can't figure out is how to set up cascade deletes, so if, for example, there's a table full of dog owners, and a table full of dogs, and I delete an owner, I want all the dogs that person owned to also get deleted.

How do I do this using phpMyAdmin? (or if I have to get down & dirty with straight SQL, I can handle that...)

do a SHOW CREATE TABLE on each of your two tables, paste that here, and we can supply the necessary SQL to add your relationship

phpMyAdmin's SQL is cutting off the text result.. so I did an export instead

CREATE TABLE `words` (
`word_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`word` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`word_id`),
KEY `word` (`word`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM

CREATE TABLE `answers` (
`word_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`matters` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`feeling` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM

Is that enough info? So words contains a list of words.. and answers (which is lacking a primary key, I know) has a FK word_id. I'd like it so when I delete a word, all the answers that refer to it are deleted too.

Yes that's plenty.
What you need to realise is that MySQL only supports Foreign Keys using the InnoDB engine type. This is where your problem is occuring. Specify those tables as follows :

CREATE TABLE `words` (
`word_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`word` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`word_id`),
KEY `word` (`word`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB

CREATE TABLE `answers` (
`word_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`matters` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`feeling` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL
FOREIGN KEY (`word_id`) REFERENCES words(`word_id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB

unless you have to use phpmyadmin have you though of using MySQL Administrator form MySQL.......

Awesome, thanks guys