SPELL(1)                             BSD                              SPELL(1)



NAME
     spell, spellin, spellout - find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS
     spell [-v] [-b] [-x] [-d hlist] [-s hstop] [-h spellhist] [file]

     spellin [list]

     spellout [-d] list

DESCRIPTION
     spell collects words from the named documents and looks them up in a
     spelling list. It prints on the standard output all words which neither
     occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes
     or suffixes) from words in the spelling list.  If you do not name any
     files, spell collects words from the standard input.

     spell ignores most troff(1), tbl(1), and eqn(1) constructions.

     The spelling list is based on many sources.  While it is more haphazard
     than an ordinary dictionary, it is also more effective with proper names
     and popular technical words.  Coverage of the specialized vocabularies of
     biology, medicine and chemistry is light.

     The history file accumulates copies of all output.  The stop list filters
     out misspellings (e.g., thier=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass.


     Two routines help maintain the hash lists used by spell.  Both expect a
     set of words, one per line, from the standard input.  spellin combines
     the words from the standard input and the preexisting list file and
     places a new list on the standard output.  If no list file is specified,
     the new list is created from scratch.

     spellout looks up each word from the standard input and prints on the
     standard output those that are missing from (or present on, with option
     -d) the hashed list file.

OPTIONS
     -v            Print all words not literally in the spelling list, and
                   indicate plausible derivations from spelling list words.

     -b            Check British spelling.  Besides preferring "centre",
                   "colour", "speciality", and "travelled", this option
                   insists upon "-ise" in words like "standardise".

     -x            Print every plausible stem with an equal sign (=) for each
                   word.

     -d hlist      Specify hlist as the spelling list file to be used instead
                   of the default.

     -s hstop      Specify hstop as the stop list file to be used instead of
                   the default.

     -h spellhist  Specify spellhist as the history file to be used instead of
                   the default.

EXAMPLE
     To verify that "hookey" is not on the default spelling list, add it to
     your own private list, and then use it with spell, use

          echo hookey | spellout /usr/dict/hlista
          echo hookey | spellin /usr/dict/hlista >
          spell -d myhlist huckfinn

FILES
     /usr/dict/hlist[ab] Hashed spelling lists, American and British;
                         default for -d
     /usr/dict/hstop     Hashed stop list; default for -s
     /dev/null           History file; default for -h
     /tmp/spell.$$*      Temporary files
     /usr/lib/spell

BUGS
     The spelling list's coverage is uneven; new installations will probably
     wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.

     British spelling was done by an American.

SEE ALSO
     deroff(1), sort(1), tee(1), sed(1)