SPELL(1) | General Commands Manual | SPELL(1)

# NAME

`spell` — find spelling errors

# SYNOPSIS

`spell` | [`-biltvx`] [`-d` list] [`-h` spellhist] [`-m` a | e | l | m | s] [`-s` list] [+extra_list] [file ...]

# DESCRIPTION

`spell` collects words from the named documents and looks them up in a spelling list. Words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes) from words in the spelling list are printed on the standard output.

If no files are named, words are collected from the standard input. `spell` ignores most troff, tbl, eqn, and pic constructions. Copies of all output may be accumulated in the history file, if one is specified.

By default, `spell` (like deroff(1)) follows chains of included files (“.so” and “.nx” commands).

The default spelling list is based on Webster's Second International dictionary and should be fairly complete. Words that appear in the “stop list” are immediately flagged as misspellings, regardless of whether or not they exist in one of the word lists. This helps filter out misspellings (e.g. thier=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass. Additionally, the british file is also used as a stop list unless the `-b` option is specified.

Site administrators may add words to the local word list, /usr/local/share/dict/words or the local stop list, /usr/local/share/dict/stop.

All word (and stop) lists must be sorted in lexicographical order with case folded. The simplest way to achieve this is to use “sort -df”. If the word files are incorrectly sorted, `spell` will not be able to operate correctly.

The options are as follows:

`-b`
  Check British spelling. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists upon `-ise` in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary notwithstanding. In this mode, American variants of words are added to the stop list.
`-d` list
  Use the specified word list instead of the default system word list. The word list must be sorted as specified above.
`-h` spellhist
  Store misspelled words in the specified history file. The output of `who -m` is appended to the history file after the list of misspelled words.
`-i`
  Instruct deroff(1) to ignore “.so” and “.nx” commands.
`-l`
  Use delatex instead of deroff(1) if it is present on the system.
`-m`
  Enable support for common troff macro packages; this option is passed verbatim to deroff(1). Refer to the `-m` description in deroff(1) for details.
`-s` list
  Use the specified stop list instead of the default system stop list. The stop list must be sorted as specified above.
`-t`
  Use detex instead of deroff(1) if it is present on the system.
`-v`
  Print all words not literally in the spelling list in addition to plausible derivations from spelling list words.
`-x`
  Print every plausible stem, prefixed with ‘=’.
+extra_list
  Use extra_list in addition to the default word list. The extra word list must be sorted as specified above.

# FILES

/usr/share/dict/words
  Default spelling list.
/usr/share/dict/american
  American spelling of certain words.
/usr/share/dict/british
  British spelling of certain words.
/usr/share/dict/stop
  Default stop list.
/usr/local/share/dict/words
  Local spelling list (optional).
/usr/local/share/dict/stop
  Local stop list (optional).
/usr/libexec/spellprog
  Binary executed by the shell script /usr/bin/spell.

# SEE ALSO

deroff(1), look(1), sed(1), sort(1), tee(1)

# HISTORY

The `spell` command first appeared in Version 5 AT&T UNIX. It did not appear in freely redistributable BSD releases for licensing reasons. After Caldera relicensed early UNIX releases the 4.4BSD version was added to OpenBSD 3.1.

Unlike historic versions, the OpenBSD `spell` command does not use hashed word files. Instead, it uses lexicographically sorted files and the same technique as look(1).

# BUGS

The spelling list lacks many technical terms; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.

British spelling was done by an American.

In `-x` mode it would be nicer if the stems were grouped with the appropriate word.

August 3, 2022 | Debian