---
name: "gendict"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "icu"
version: "78.3-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gendict"
---

# gendict(1)

Compiles word list into ICU string trie dictionary

## NAME

**gendict** - Compiles word list into ICU string trie dictionary

## SYNOPSIS

**gendict** \[ **--uchars** \| **--bytes** **--transform** *transform* \] \[ **-h, -?, --help** \] \[ **-V, --version** \] \[ **-c, --copyright** \] \[ **-v, --verbose** \] \[ **-i, --icudatadir** *directory* \]  *input-file*  *output-file*

## DESCRIPTION

**gendict** reads the word list from *dictionary-file* and creates a string trie dictionary file. Normally this data file has the  **.dict** extension.

Words begin at the beginning of a line and are terminated by the first whitespace. Lines that begin with whitespace are ignored.

## OPTIONS

- **-h, -?, --help**

  Print help about usage and exit.

- **-V, --version**

  Print the version of **gendict** and exit.

- **-c, --copyright**

  Embeds the standard ICU copyright into the *output-file*.

- **-v, --verbose**

  Display extra informative messages during execution.

- **-i, --icudatadir** *directory*

  Look for any necessary ICU data files in *directory*. For example, the file **pnames.icu** must be located when ICU's data is not built as a shared library. The default ICU data directory is specified by the environment variable **ICU\_DATA**. Most configurations of ICU do not require this argument.

- **--uchars**

  Set the output trie type to UChar. Mutually exclusive with **--bytes.**

- **--bytes**

  Set the output trie type to Bytes. Mutually exclusive with  **--uchars.**

- **--transform**

  Set the transform type. Should only be specified with **--bytes.** Currently supported transforms are: **offset-\<hex-number\>,** which specifies an offset to subtract from all input characters. It should be noted that the offset transform also maps U+200D  to 0xFF and U+200C to 0xFE, in order to offer compatibility to  languages that require these characters. A transform must be specified for a bytes trie, and when applied  to the non-value characters in the  *input-file* must produce output between 0x00 and 0xFF.

- **input-file**

  The source file to read.

- **output-file**

  The file to write the output dictionary to.

## CAVEATS

The  *input-file* is assumed to be encoded in UTF-8. The integers in the  *input-file* that are used as values must be made up of ASCII digits. They  may be specified either in hex, by using a 0x prefix, or in  decimal. Either **--bytes** or  **--uchars** must be specified.

## ENVIRONMENT

- **ICU\_DATA**

  Specifies the directory containing ICU data. Defaults to **${prefix}/share/icu/78.3/**. Some tools in ICU depend on the presence of the trailing slash. It is thus important to make sure that it is present if **ICU\_DATA** is set.

## AUTHORS

Maxime Serrano

## VERSION

1\.0

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2012 International Business Machines Corporation and others

## SEE ALSO

**http://www.icu-project.org/userguide/boundaryAnalysis.html**