The aspell command, from the aspell package is designed to spell check files. This package also provides the command spell, ispell, and run-with-aspell which call aspell in different ways.
For example, to check if the word "compatible" is correct, execute the command:
echo compatible|aspell -a
The output should be similar to:
@(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 *
This output shows that "compatible" is spelt correctly.
However, if you try to check the word "compatable," the output would be:
@(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 & compatable 5 0: compatible, computable, comparable,
This output shows that "compatable" is incorrect. Correctly spelled alternatives are listed as suggestions.
The spell command can be used to check for misspelled words in a file:
$ spell example.txt thr
This shows that the word "thr" is misspelled in the file.
The look command, from the util-linux package, lets you check a word on the command line against a list of correctly spelled words. By default, look references the list of words in "/usr/share/dict/words" from the words package.
For example, to check if "compatable" is spelled correctly:
$ look compatable
This returns no output, so "compatable" is not a correctly spelled word.
