Create your own language tools

Create a spell checker or a terminology bank using reliable data. The federal government provides access to all the terminological data from TERMIUM Plus®, which allows you to build your own language tool.

How to download the data

Follow these steps to get TERMIUM Plus® data:

1. Go to the Government of Canada's Open Data Portal
2. Click "Search for Open Data and Information"
3. Type "TERMIUM Plus" in the search bar
4. Click "Search" (or press "Enter")
5. Select the dataset titled "TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada’s terminology and linguistic data bank"
6. Find the field you want on the TERMIUM Plus® dataset page
7. Click the "Explore" button next to it
8. Select "Go to Resource." A zip folder will download
9. Open the zip folder
10. Extract the CSV files inside it ("Extract All" in Windows Explorer), saving the files to the location of your choice

How to open the CSV files

1. Open spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc (instructions below are for Microsoft Excel)
2. Under "File", click "Open"
3. Choose the folder where you saved the CSV files
4. If you do not see a list of files to choose from, select the option "All files" in the drop-down list beside the "File Name" box
5. Open the CSV file you want
6. Choose "Delimited" in the Text Import Wizard window
7. Click "Next"
8. Uncheck the "Tab" delimiter
9. Check the "Comma" delimiter
10. Click "Next"
11. Make sure the radio button "General" is selected under "Column Data Format"
12. Click "Finish"
13. Adjust the column widths to see all the data
14. Using these data, you can create a variety of language tools, such as a spelling checker or a terminology data bank