A command-line regex search engine for the English language.
The only major requirement is Python.
If you try to install Lexitron and something goes wrong, let me know what your system details are and I'll try to get it fixed.
Lexitron is available on the Python Package Index (pip). To install, simply type
$ pip install lexitron
at the command line.
Once the install is complete, you can access Lexitron with the lx command at
the terminal.
Usage syntax is
$ lx [options] expression
where expression is a regular expression and [options] are as follows.
| option | function |
|---|---|
-h |
Print help and exit |
-i |
Print info header along with search results |
-n |
Print only the number of matches |
-u |
Include uppercase/proper words (like "France") in addition to lowercase/common words |
-U |
Search only for uppercase/proper words |
-v |
Print version and exit |
-x |
Print unformatted output, one word per line |
Type $ lx -h for full help text.
If you aren't familiar with regular expressions, it isn't too hard to learn the basics. There are many resources online. A good starting point is the Wikipedia article.
By default, Lexitron will output a well-formatted (potentially multi-column) list of words, along with a header describing the results.
The results are separated into "proper" words (capitalized, like "France") and "common" words (lowercase, like "boat").
Using the -x flag will return a more machine-readable output with one word
per line.
A list of lowercase English words ending with "icide".
$ lx icide$
aborticide germicide ovicide spermicide
acaricide giganticide parasiticide sporicide
agricide herbicide parasuicide stillicide
algicide homicide parricide suicide
aphicide infanticide patricide tyrannicide
aphidicide insecticide pesticide uxoricide
bacillicide larvicide prolicide vaticide
bactericide liberticide pulicide verbicide
deicide matricide raticide vermicide
feticide medicide regicide viricide
filicide menticide rodenticide vulpicide
foeticide miticide scabicide
fratricide molluscicide silicide
fungicide nematicide sororicide
A list of lowercase English words that contain the substring "rdb", printed with info header.
$ lx -i rdb
20 matches for /rdb/
birdbath herdbook
birdbrain herdboy
cardboard leopardbane
hardback recordbook
hardbake standardbearer
hardball standardbred
hardbeam swordbill
hardboard thirdborough
hardboot wordbook
hardbound yardbird
The number of lowercase English words that end in "tion".
$ lx -n ".*tion"
3837
(This number should be taken with a grain of salt, since no dictionary is perfect, and it depends on what you count as a valid english word, and which technical or niche jargons are included; etc etc.)
A list of English words with the same double letter appearing twice, except
for those whose double letter is a vowel or the letter s (to ignore
words of the form *lessness), printed with info header.
$ lx -iu "([^aeious])\1.*\1\1"
45 matches for /([^aeious])\1.*\1\1/ (9 proper, 36 common)
Allhallowmas
Allhallows
Allhallowtide
Armillariella
Chancellorsville
Dullsville
Gallirallus
Hunnemannia
Llullaillaco
acciaccatura jellyroll rollcollar
bellpull kinnikinnic rollerball
chiffchaff kinnikinnick scuttlebutt
dillydallier millefeuille shillyshally
dillydally niffnaff skillfully
dullsville parallelling snippersnapper
flibbertigibbet pellmell villanelle
granddaddy pizzazz volleyball
hallalling pralltriller volleyballer
hillbilly razzamatazz whippersnapper
huggermugger razzmatazz willfully
hullaballoo riffraff yellowbelly
Compare the number of lowercase English words that end in "woman" with the number that end in "man".
$ lx -n ".*woman"
107
$ lx -n ".*(?<\!wo)man"
1145
For its dictionary, Lexitron uses the Automatically Generated Inflection Database (AGID) by Kevin Atkinson. See http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/.
Lexitron is licensed under GNU GPL Version 2.
Questions, bug reports, and feature requests can be filed on the Github issues tracker.