Moby Hyphenation List

Grady WardProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

0.8

Word count: 8.1K words
Chapters: 1

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Moby Hyphenation List by Grady WardAuthor: Ward, Grady, 1951-,Language: English, Class: AG: General Works: Dictionaries and other general reference books, Release Date: May 1, 2002

Editor's review

This "Moby Hyphenation List" is not a "book" meant to be read from cover to cover, but a reference word list for English text processing—a tool, essentially. Its core value lies in organizing the hyphenation points of English words into a searchable list, useful for typesetting, word breaking, dictionary compilation, text proofreading, and tokenization and line-breaking in natural language processing. For ordinary readers it has almost no narrative quality or reading pleasure; but for editors, typesetters, corpus builders, and those studying English word formation and syllabification, such a word list can save a great deal of manual checking. As an electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, it is better used as a data file or query tool than as traditional reading material. Its scope should be kept clear: it provides hyphenation-point reference, not full dictionary definitions, and does not resolve all hyphenation ambiguities. It is best consulted as needed for a specific project rather than read through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Editors engaged in English typesetting, word breaking, and proofreading
Developers and designers who need to handle English text line-breaking rules
Language learners studying English syllabification or word formation
Project staff building corpora who need hyphenation reference data

Not a good fit for

General readers looking for an English book to read continuously
Learners expecting word definitions, usage, or example sentences
Users needing full dictionary functionality rather than hyphenation reference

Reading tips

Treat it as a lookup table and search for the hyphenation points of specific words as the project requires.
First sample and verify the list's format and splitting rules before deciding on bulk use.
Use it alongside a standard dictionary or typesetting style guide to avoid mistaking hyphenation points for definitions.
If used for programmatic processing, test the parsing logic on a small scale before expanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this word list be used as a dictionary?

No. It mainly provides hyphenation points for English words and is a reference for typesetting and text processing; it contains no meanings, pronunciations, example sentences, or usage notes. Use a proper dictionary for meanings; this list is only an aid for word breaking.

Do ordinary readers need to read it?

Generally not. It has no continuous narrative and is not meant to be read from the beginning. It is useful only when you need to handle English word breaking, line breaking in typesetting, or text data; for reading English novels or learning vocabulary, dictionaries and readers are more suitable.

What should be kept in mind when using it?

Note that it is only a hyphenation-point reference; different typesetting conventions have different requirements for word breaking, and the list may not cover all exceptions and proper nouns. In practice, check it against the typesetting rules used by the project or an authoritative dictionary to avoid mechanical application causing hyphenation errors.

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About the author

Grady Ward Author · American · 1951

Grady Ward (born 1951) is an American software engineer and lexicographer. Combining computer technology with the organization of English vocabulary, he created and released the Moby series of English lexical resources, which has had a certain influence in the field of language data. The series includes lists of common words in multiple languages, a thesaurus list, a part-of-speech list, a pronunciation list, and a hyphenation list. Among them, the Moby Thesaurus contains more than 2.5 million synonyms, a considerable scale that provides usable foundational data for natural language processing, dictionary compilation, and language research. Five of his works are held in this collection. Public information about his education and personal background is limited; his contribution lies mainly in openly aggregating and sharing large-scale English lexical materials for the convenience of later users.