SPELL(1)

NAME
spell, sprog - find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS
spell [ options ] ... [ file ] ...

sprog [ options ] [ -f file ]

DESCRIPTION
Spell looks up words from the named files (standard input default) in a spelling list and places possible misspellings—words not sanctioned there—on the standard output.

Spell ignores constructs of troff(1) and its standard preprocessors. It understands these options:

-b  Check British spelling.

-v  Print all words not literally in the spelling list, with derivations.

-x  Print, marked with every stem as it is looked up in the spelling list, along with its affix classes.

As a matter of policy, spell does not admit multiple spellings of the same word. Variants that follow general rules are preferred over those that don't, even when the unruly spelling is more common. Thus, in American usage, `modelled', `sizeable', and `judgment' are rejected in favor of `modeled', `sizable', and `judgement'. Agglutinated variants are shunned: `crewmember' and `backyard' cede to `crew member' and `back yard' (noun) or `back-yard' (adjective).

FILES

/usr/local/plan9/lib/amspell
    American spelling list

/usr/local/plan9/lib/brspell
    British spelling list

/bin/aux/sprog
    The actual spelling checker. It expects one word per line on standard input, and takes the same arguments as spell.

SOURCE

/usr/local/plan9/bin/spell
    the script

/usr/local/plan9/src/cmd/spell
    source for sprog

SEE ALSO
deroff(1)

BUGS
The heuristics of deroff(1) used to excise formatting information are imperfect.
The spelling list's coverage is uneven; in particular biology, medicine, and chemistry, and perforce proper names, not to mention languages other than English, are covered very lightly.