ispell
interactive spell checker
TLDR
Check file interactively
$ ispell [file.txt]
Check from stdin$ echo "wrods" | ispell -a
List misspellings$ ispell -l < [file.txt]
Use specific dictionary$ ispell -d [american] [file.txt]
Check TeX/LaTeX file$ ispell -t [document.tex]
Expand affix flags from stdin$ echo "[BOTH/R]" | ispell -e
SYNOPSIS
ispell [options] file...
DESCRIPTION
ispell is an interactive spell checker. It highlights misspellings and offers corrections for text files. In interactive mode, each misspelled word is displayed with context, and the user can choose a suggested correction, type a replacement, or add the word to a personal dictionary.The tool supports multiple languages and input formats including plain text, TeX/LaTeX, nroff/troff, and HTML. It can run interactively or in pipe mode (-a) for scripting and integration with other programs.
PARAMETERS
-a
Pipe mode for programs.-l
List misspelled words only.-d DICT
Use specific dictionary.-t
TeX/LaTeX mode.-n
nroff/troff mode.-H
HTML mode.-b
Create a backup file (.bak) of the input file.-x
Don't create a backup file.-B
Report run-together words as spelling errors.-C
Consider run-together words as legal compounds.-M
Display a one-line mini-menu of options at the bottom of the screen.-N
Suppress the mini-menu.-c
Suggest corrections for words read from stdin.-e[1-5]
Expand affix flags from stdin. Optional level controls output detail.-S
Sort the list of guesses by probable correctness.-W N
Specify length of words to consider always legal (default 3).-p FILE
Personal dictionary file.-L LINES
Number of context lines to display.
INSTALL
sudo apt install ispell
sudo pacman -S ispell
sudo apk add aspell-compat
sudo zypper install ispell
brew install ispell
nix profile install nixpkgs#ispell
CAVEATS
Largely replaced by aspell/hunspell. Dictionary availability varies. Format-specific modes needed.
HISTORY
ispell was created by Ralph E. Gorin at Stanford in 1971, later rewritten as International Ispell by Geoff Kuenning.
