# Words (Unix)

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Unix file listing dictionary words

**words** is a standard file on [Unix](/source/Unix) and Unix-like operating systems, and is simply a [newline](/source/Newline)-delimited list of dictionary words. It is used, for instance, by [spell-checking programs](/source/Spell_checker).[1]

The words file is usually stored in /usr/share/dict/words or /usr/dict/words.

On [Debian](/source/Debian) and [Ubuntu](/source/Ubuntu_(operating_system)), the words file is provided by the wordlist package, or its provider packages wbritish, wamerican, etc. On [Fedora](/source/Fedora_(operating_system)), [Alpine Linux](/source/Alpine_Linux) and [Arch Linux](/source/Arch_Linux), the words file is provided by the words package. The words package is sourced from data from the [Moby Project](/source/Moby_Project), a public domain compilation of words.[2]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Tushar2013_1-0)** Tushar, Shantanu (2013). [*Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook*](https://books.google.com/books?id=h_WlXqgPV00C&pg=PT219). Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing. pp. 219–220. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-78216-275-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-78216-275-9).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-words3038_2-0)** ["words-3.0-38.fc35.noarch.rpm"](https://fedora.pkgs.org/rawhide/fedora-aarch64/words-3.0-38.fc35.noarch.rpm.html). *pkgs.org*.

## External links

- [Sample words file from Duke CS department](http://www.cs.duke.edu/~ola/ap/linuxwords)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Words (Unix)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_(Unix)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_(Unix)?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.