PyHunspell2

A modern, lightweight Python interface to Hunspell, designed to work with current Hunspell versions and to be easy to install across platforms, including macOS.

This project was created as a maintained alternative to pyhunspell, which is no longer actively maintained and does not support newer releases of Hunspell.

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Installation

using pip: pip install hunspell2

or, if using uv: uv add hunspell2

Additional requirements:

• hunspell must be installed and available on your PATH. (check by running hunspell -v)

• Provide your own .dic and .aff files

  • many languages are available here
  • note that few languages provide stem and morphological analysis

Usage

from hunspell2 import HunSpell

# Load a dictionary
hs = HunSpell("../dicts/fr/fr.dic")

# Check spelling
hs.spell("asdf")
# False

hs.spell("salut")
# True

# Get spelling suggestions
hs.suggest("garcon")
# ['garçon', 'gardon', 'gascon']

# Get raw line by line output from the hunspell subprocess
hs.raw("garcon")
# ['& garcon 3 0: garçon, gardon, gascon\n', '\n']

# Get stems
hs.stem("suis")
# ['suivre', 'être']

# Morphological analysis
hs.analyze("est")
# [
#   ['st:est', 'po:nom', 'is:mas', 'is:sg'],
#   ['st:être', 'po:v0ei_____a', 'po:ipre', 'po:3sg']
# ]

# Optional: close after no longer needed
hs.close()

Motivation

Hunspell is widely used for spell checking, but existing Python bindings—most notably pyhunspell—have fallen behind:

• pyhunspell is no longer actively maintained
• It does not support modern Hunspell versions (≥ 1.7)
• Installation often fails on newer systems, or requires manual tinkering, especially macOS

This library aims to provide:

• ✅ Compatibility with current Hunspell versions
• ✅ Simple installation on macOS, Linux, and other platforms
• ✅ A clean, Pythonic API
• ✅ Minimal build complexity

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Design

Instead of tightly coupling to Hunspell’s internal C++ headers and build layout, this library relies on the system-installed hunspell command-line tool.

This design choice provides several benefits:

• No fragile dependency on Hunspell’s internal header structure
• Works with any Hunspell version available on the system
• Simplifies installation, especially on macOS
• Avoids compiler and ABI issues common with native Python extensions