symspellpy

library6.10.0pypypi✓ verified 26d ago

SymSpellPy is a Python port of the SymSpell spelling corrector, designed for high performance and low memory consumption. It provides fast fuzzy search and spell correction capabilities, capable of handling large dictionaries. The library is actively maintained, with a recent major release (v6.x) and a consistent release cadence addressing new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements.

data ai-ml

pip install symspellpy

github ↗package ↗homepage ↗docs ↗changelog ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · SYMSPELLPY

symspellpy

datapythonv6.10.0

Install

1.7s avg

Import

71ms

Disk

23MB

Pass rate

10/ 10

Env Coverage10 / 10

glibc

3.9–3.13

musl

3.9–3.13

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v6.10.0 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

py 3.10–3.95 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 0.0s · import 0.078s · 24.2MB

glibc

py 3.10–3.95 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 1.7s · import 0.064s · 25MB

23MB installed

● package 23MB

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

SymSpell

✓ from symspellpy import SymSpell

Verbosity

✓ from symspellpy import Verbosity

DistanceAlgorithm

✓ from symspellpy.editdistance import DistanceAlgorithm

✗ from symspellpy import DistanceAlgorithm

DistanceAlgorithm is located in the `symspellpy.editdistance` submodule, not directly under `symspellpy`.

This quickstart demonstrates how to initialize SymSpell, manually create dictionary entries, and perform basic spell correction for single words and compound phrases. In a production environment, dictionaries are typically loaded from text files using `sym_spell.load_dictionary()`.

from symspellpy import SymSpell, Verbosity import os # Initialize SymSpell sym_spell = SymSpell(max_dictionary_edit_distance=2, prefix_length=7) # A simple corpus for demonstration (in a real app, load from file) dictionary_corpus = {"apple": 10, "banana": 8, "aple": 2, "apply": 5} for term, count in dictionary_corpus.items(): sym_spell.create_dictionary_entry(term, count) # Example usage: lookup a word input_term = "aple" suggestions = sym_spell.lookup(input_term, Verbosity.CLOSEST, max_edit_distance=2) print(f"Input: '{input_term}'") print("Suggestions:") for suggestion in suggestions: print(f" {suggestion.term} (distance: {suggestion.distance}, count: {suggestion.count})") # Example usage: lookup compound words input_phrase = "whereis th elibary" suggestions_compound = sym_spell.lookup_compound(input_phrase, max_edit_distance=2) print(f"\nInput phrase: '{input_phrase}'") print("Compound suggestions:") for suggestion in suggestions_compound: print(f" {suggestion.term} (distance: {suggestion.distance}, count: {suggestion.count})")

Debug

Known issues

breakingSymSpellPy dropped support for Python 3.6 in v6.7.7 and Python 3.7/3.8 in v6.8.0. The library now requires Python 3.9 or higher. Ensure your environment meets this requirement.

fix

Upgrade your Python interpreter to version 3.9 or newer. Consider using a virtual environment to manage Python versions.

affects: >=6.7.7

breakingAs of v6.9.0, frequency counts provided to dictionary methods (e.g., `create_dictionary_entry`, `load_dictionary`) must be 64-bit integers. Passing smaller integers or non-integer types for counts may lead to unexpected behavior or errors.

fix

Ensure all frequency counts in your dictionary data are parsed and stored as 64-bit integers before being passed to SymSpellPy.

affects: >=6.9.0

breakingIn v6.9.0, internal argument names `string1` and `string2` in distance comparison methods were renamed. If you have custom distance comparers or interact with these methods directly, you may need to update your code.

fix

Review any custom distance comparer implementations or direct calls to distance calculation methods and adjust argument names if they use `string1` or `string2`.

affects: >=6.9.0

gotchaPrior to v6.7.7, `symspellpy` could inadvertently modify the root logger's configuration. Since v6.7.7, it correctly configures its own module logger. If your application relied on `symspellpy`'s old logging behavior, you may need to adjust your logging setup.

fix

Explicitly configure `symspellpy`'s logger using `logging.getLogger('symspellpy')` if you need to control its output, or ensure your root logger is configured independently.

affects: >=6.7.7

gotchaWhen using `ignore_term_with_digits=True` in `lookup` or `lookup_compound` methods, it is recommended to also set `ignore_non_words=True` for comprehensive filtering, as clarified in v6.7.3. Failing to do so might result in inconsistent filtering of terms with digits.

fix

Always use `ignore_non_words=True` in conjunction with `ignore_term_with_digits=True` to ensure proper behavior.

affects: >=6.7.3

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'symspellpy'

The `symspellpy` package is not installed in the current Python environment.

fix

pip install symspellpy

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'frequency_dictionary_en_82_765.txt'

The dictionary file specified in `load_dictionary` or `load_bigram_dictionary` does not exist at the provided path.

fix

Ensure the dictionary file exists and provide the correct absolute or relative path to it in your code, e.g., `sym_spell.load_dictionary("path/to/frequency_dictionary_en_82_765.txt", 0, 1)`.

AttributeError: 'SymSpell' object has no attribute 'distance_algorithm'

Users often try to directly access or modify `distance_algorithm` as a property after `SymSpell` initialization, but it is an internal configuration parameter set during instantiation.

fix

Configure the `distance_algorithm` (and other related parameters like `max_dictionary_edit_distance`, `prefix_length`) when creating the `SymSpell` object, e.g., `from symspellpy import SymSpell, DistanceAlgorithm
sym_spell = SymSpell(max_dictionary_edit_distance=2, prefix_length=7, distance_algorithm=DistanceAlgorithm.DAMERAU_LEVENSHTEIN)`.

TypeError: max_dictionary_edit_distance must be an int

The `max_dictionary_edit_distance` parameter received a non-integer value (e.g., a string or float) during `SymSpell` object initialization.

fix

Provide an integer value for `max_dictionary_edit_distance` when instantiating `SymSpell`, for example: `from symspellpy import SymSpell
sym_spell = SymSpell(max_dictionary_edit_distance=2)`.

Upgrade

Version history

6.10.0latest on PyPI · released Jul 11, 2026

Audit

Dependencies

editdistpyrequiredProvides fast edit distance calculation algorithms, which SymSpellPy uses for its core functionality.

Agent activity

22 hits · last 30 days

node

Amazon

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/mammothb/symspellpy ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/symspellpy/ ↗

homepagehttps://symspellpy.readthedocs.io ↗

docshttps://symspellpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest ↗

changeloghttps://github.com/mammothb/symspellpy/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md ↗