NAME

spell, spellin, spellout − find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS

spell [ options ] [ files ]

/usr/lib/spell/spellin [ list ]

/usr/lib/spell/spellout [ −d ] list

DESCRIPTION

Spell collects words from the named files and looks them up in a spelling list.  Words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes, and/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(1), tbl(1), and eqn(1) constructions.

Under the −v option, all words not literally in the spelling list are printed, and plausible derivations from the words in the spelling list are indicated. 

Under the −b option, British spelling is checked.  Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists upon -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Under the −x option, every plausible stem is printed with = for each word. 

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

Pertinent auxiliary files may be specified by name arguments, indicated below with their default settings.  Copies of all output are accumulated in the history file.  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 list of words, one per line, from the standard input): spellin adds the words on the standard input to the preexisting list and places a new list on the standard output.  If no list is specified, the new list is created from scratch.  Spellout looks up each word read from the standard input, and prints on the standard output those that are missing from (or, with the −d option, present in) the hash list. 

FILES

D_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists, American & British

S_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hstop hashed stop list

H_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/spellhist history file

/tmp/spell.$$ temporary

/usr/lib/spell/spellprog program

SEE ALSO

deroff(1), eqn(1), sed(1), sort(1), tbl(1), tee(1), troff(1), typo(1). 

BUGS

The spelling list’s coverage is uneven; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions; typically, these are kept in a separate local dictionary that is added to the hashed list via spellin.
British spelling was done by an American.