Enchant (software)
In this article we will explore the importance of Enchant (software) in contemporary society. From its impact on people's daily lives to its relevance in professional fields, Enchant (software) has generated a constant debate in different spheres. Over the years, Enchant (software) has been the subject of study and analysis, which has allowed us to understand its influence in different contexts. Likewise, through recent research it has been possible to discover new perspectives on Enchant (software), which leads us to reflect on its current role and its future projection.
| Enchant | |
|---|---|
| Original author | AbiWord developers / Dom Lachowicz |
| Developer | Enchant developers / Reuben Thomas |
| Stable release | 2.8.14[1]
/ 20 November 2025 |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | C, C++, and Vala (programming language) |
| Operating system | Linux, BSDs, Mac OS X, Windows |
| Size | ~1.3MB (source code only) |
| Type | Spell checker |
| License | Variant of LGPL[2] |
| Website | rrthomas |
Enchant is a free software project developed as part of the AbiWord word processor with the aim of unifying access to the various existing spell-checker software. Enchant wraps a common set of functionality present in a variety of existing products/libraries, and exposes a stable API/ABI for doing so. Where a library doesn't implement some specific functionality, Enchant will emulate it.
Enchant is capable of having multiple backends loaded at once. As of January 2021 it has support for 7 backends:
- Hunspell (spell checker used by LibreOffice, Firefox and Google Chrome)
- Nuspell (modern spell checker compatible with Hunspell dictionaries)
- Aspell (intends to replace Ispell)
- Hspell (Hebrew)
- Voikko (Finnish)
- Zemberek (Turkish)
- AppleSpell (macOS)
GNOME LaTeX and gedit rely on the gspell library, which uses Enchant.[4][5][6]
Enchant is currently licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), with an additional permission notice saying that any plugin backend can be loaded and used by Enchant. This ensures that it can use the native spell checkers on various platforms (Mac OS X, Microsoft Office, Amazon Kindle, etc.), and users can use their favorite third-party product to do the job.
References
- ^ "Release 2.8.14". 20 November 2025. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
- ^ "Enchant's license".
- ^ "Enchant".
- ^ "gspell website".
- ^ "gspell alongside GNOME 3.18". 2015-11-20. Archived from the original on 2018-11-14. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
- ^ "gspell alongside GNOME 3.20". 2016-03-09.[dead link]
External links
- Project homepage
- PyEnchant - Python bindings for Enchant
Free and open-source software projects hosted by freedesktop.org | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OS components |
| &sq=Enchant_(software)&lang=en&file=File:Freedesktop-logo-for-template.svg){kind=logo} | ||||||
| Libraries | ||||||||
| Frameworks | ||||||||
| Meetings | ||||||||