Installation

In Brief

• Put the *.py files where Python can see them.
• Download the WordNet database files from http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/.

• Do one of:

  • Set the WNHOME environment variable to the pathname of WordNet's "Dictionary" or "dict" directory.
  • Set the WNSEARCHDIR environment variable to the pathname of the directory that _contains_ this directory.
  • Place an alias to WordNet's "Dictionary" (Mac) or "dict" (UNIX or PC) directory in Python's home directory (and name the alias "Dictionary" or "dict", respectively);

Specific Platforms

MacOS

Download and decompress the zip file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywordnet, and copy the *.py files to your Python path.

Make an alias to {Wordnet}:Database (name the alias "Database"), and place it in your MacPython folder.  (There are additional requirements for getting PyWordNet to work with the UNIX download of wn1.7.  If you're trying to do this and have trouble, send me at steele@cs.brandeis.edu.)

UNIX

Set the WNHOME environment variable to the location of the WordNet installation (the directory that contains dict as a subdirectory).

Download the *.tar.gz file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywordnet, and install it:

prompt> tar xfz pywordnet-1.2.1.tar.gz
prompt> cd pywordnet-1.2.1
prompt> python setup.py install

If you don't have permission to install the files, you can instead add the name of the directory they're in to your Python path, or copy the *.py files to your working directory.

Windows

Download and execute the *.exe file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywordnet to install the Python files.

Set the WNHOME environment variable to the location of the WordNet installation (the directory that contains dict as a subdirectory).

Testing

Launch Python, and test the system:

import wordnet
wordnet._test()

Try it out by executing N['dog'] to retrieve the entry for "dog". See the Example Session or the file documentation for a longer list of examples.