How can I check if a string given is a real word?

Question

I am making a program that solves anagrams in Visual Basic. How can I check if a string given by the anagram solver is a real word? I know I will have to access some sort of dictionary but I have no idea how to do this?

I need a function that checks the word to return a true/false boolean value. Is this possible?

I'm using Visual Basic in Microsoft's VS2015.

Answer 1

Hunspell is pretty easy to use.

• Install the .net-library through Nuget (open your project in Visual Studio, then > Extras > Nuget-Package-Manager -> Console, type Install-Package NHunspell)
• Download the .aiff and .dic files, see the dictionaries link on the Hunspell project page. Include these files in your project or use absolute paths.

Sample Code:

Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged
    Using h As New NHunspell.Hunspell(
        "...path ...\en_US.aff",
        "...path ...\en_US.dic")
        Me.TextBox1.BackColor = If(h.Spell(Me.TextBox1.Text),
            Color.PaleGreen, Color.PeachPuff)
    End Using
End Sub

Hunspell

.net library NHunspell

NHunspell C# Code Samples