{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "american-english",
    "section": "5",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/american-english/5/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-16T10:13:12Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "american-english - a list of English words\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "/usr/share/dict/american-english is an ASCII file which contains an alphabetic list of words,\none per line.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FILES": {
            "content": "There may be any number of word lists in /usr/share/dict/.  /etc/dictionaries-common/words is\na    symbolic    link    to    the    currently-chosen    /usr/share/dict/<language>    file.\n/usr/share/dict/words is a symbolic link to /etc/dictionaries-common/words, and is  the  name\nby which other software should refer to the system word list.  See select-default-wordlist(8)\nfor more information, and/or to change the currently-chosen word list.\n\nThe directory /usr/share/dict can contain word lists for many languages,  with  name  of  the\nlanguage  in English, e.g., /usr/share/dict/french and /usr/share/dict/danish contain respec‐\ntively lists of French and Danish words if they exist.  Such lists should be coded using  the\nISO 8859-1 character set encoding.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "ispell(1), select-default-wordlist(8), and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "HISTORY": {
            "content": "The words lists are not specific, and may be generated from any number of sources.\n\nThe  system  word  list used to be /usr/dict/words.  For compatibility, software should check\nthat location if /usr/share/dict/words does not exist.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Word lists are collected and maintained by various authors.  The Debian  English  word  lists\nare  built from the SCOWL (Spell- Checker Oriented Word Lists) package, whose upstream editor\nis Kevin Atkinson <kevina@users.sourceforge.net>.\n\n\n\nDebian                                      16 June 2003                         american-english(5)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "american-english - a list of English words",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "ispell",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ispell/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "select-default-wordlist",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/select-default-wordlist/8/json"
        }
    ]
}