查看某个字符串是否是一个英语单词

The /usr/share/dict/ directory contains some of the dictionary files. Dictionary files are
text files that contain a list of dictionary words. We can use this list to check whether a word is a dictionary word or not.

$ ls /usr/share/dict/

注意：下面的内容跟linux的不同系统有关系的，需要到该目录下查看存放单词的文件名：     

在我系统为：   linux.words  words

我系统版本为：

[elbort@elbort proc]$ cat version
Linux version 3.3.7-1.fc16.i686.PAE

In order to check whether the given word is a dictionary word, use the following script:
#!/bin/bash
#Filename: checkword.sh
word=$1                                                                #$0 是bash命令的名字，在本例是checkword.sh ，$1 是输入的第一个参数ful，$2是第二个，依次类推 

grep "^$1$" /usr/share/dict/linux.words -q     # "^$1$"  这个是重点,  "^"是开头的意思，"$"是结尾的意思，整个结合就是只能是$1这个单词，前面和后面都没其他字母，在本例中ful 是不能和 beautiful 区配的

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo $word is a dictionary word;
else
echo $word is not a dictionary word;
fi
The usage is as follows:
$ ./checkword.sh ful
ful is not a dictionary word
$ ./checkword.sh fool
fool is a dictionary word