spellcheck-lib

Python library for spell-checking text in multiple languages, backed by pyenchant.

Supported languages: ru_RU, en_US, es_ES, fr_FR, de_DE, pt_PT

Installation

pip install spellchecks
# or
uv add spellchecks

System dependencies

These are native OS packages — they cannot be installed from PyPI.

Package	Purpose
libenchant-2	C library that pyenchant wraps; provides the spell-checking abstraction layer
aspell	Spell-checking backend used by enchant at runtime
aspell-en / aspell-ru / aspell-es / aspell-fr / aspell-de / aspell-pt	Per-language word dictionaries for aspell

# macOS (installs enchant + hunspell backend + EN dictionary)
brew install enchant
export PYENCHANT_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/homebrew/lib/libenchant-2.dylib
# additional languages via hunspell dicts, e.g.:
brew install hunspell
# place .dic/.aff files in ~/Library/Spelling/

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt-get install libenchant-2-dev aspell aspell-en aspell-ru aspell-es aspell-fr aspell-de aspell-pt-br

Usage

from spellchecks import SpellChecker

checker = SpellChecker(language="ru_RU")
corrections = checker.check("Превед медвет")
# [OneCorrection(first_position=0, last_position=6, word='Превед', suggestions=(...)),
#  OneCorrection(first_position=7, last_position=13, word='медвет', suggestions=(...))]

With per-user word exceptions

from spellchecks import SpellChecker, FileProvider

provider = FileProvider("/data/dicts")
provider.add_word("alice", "Превед")  # add to alice's personal dictionary

words = provider.get_words("alice")
checker = SpellChecker(language="ru_RU", exclusion_words=words)
corrections = checker.check("Привет Превед")
# Превед is now excluded from corrections

Parameters

SpellChecker(*, language, exclusion_words=(), exclude_urls=True, cache_size=10000, max_suggestions=0)

• language — one of the supported language codes
• exclusion_words — iterable of words to ignore (case-insensitive)
• exclude_urls — automatically ignore URLs found in the text (default True)
• cache_size — LRU cache size for suggestions; 0 disables caching (default 10000)
• max_suggestions — max suggestions per misspelled word; 0 = unlimited (default 0)

SpellChecker.check(text)

• text — text to check

Custom dictionary storage

Implement UserDictProtocol for custom storage backends:

from spellchecks import UserDictProtocol


class RedisProvider:
    def get_words(self, user_name: str) -> list[str]: ...

    def add_word(self, user_name: str, word: str) -> None: ...

    def remove_word(self, user_name: str, word: str) -> None: ...

Development

uv sync --all-groups
just lint
just test