Polyhymnia Documentation
Flags and Options

Flags and Options

Polyhymnia provides several flags to customize and fine-tune your queries. These flags fall into three categories, required flags, optional flags and metadata flags.

Required Flags

At least one of the following flags must be included in every Polyhymnia query. These flags define the type of word search to perform:

Flag Description Example
--means-like Find words with a similar meaning. --means-like "joy"
--sounds-like Find words that sound similar to the specified word. --sounds-like "kevin"
--spelled-like Find words that match a specific spelling pattern. --spelled-like "all*e"
--related-word Find words based on specific relationships like synonyms, antonyms, or usage. --related-word ant joy (returns antonyms for “joy”)

Optional Flags

These flags allow you to customize your query, providing context, limiting results, or retrieving additional metadata:

Flag Description Example
-c, --count Display the total number of words returned. --count
--help Display a help message explaining all commands and options. polyhymnia --help
--left-context Specify words that should appear before the results. --left-context "happy"
--max Limit the number of results. (Default: 100) --max 5 to return only 5 words.
--metadata Return additional metadata, such as word frequency, pronunciation, or syllables. --metadata fp for frequency and pronunciation.
-q, --show-query Display the Datamuse API URL used for the query. --show-query
--right-context Specify words that should appear after the results. --right-context "day"
--topics Filter results by topic (comma-separated values). --topics "flight,aviation"
--version Show the current version of Polyhymnia. polyhymnia --version
--vocabulary Specify a vocabulary to search within. --vocabulary enwiki to use the English Wikipedia vocabulary.

Metadata Flags

Use these flags to include specific types of metadata in your query results:

Flag Description
-d, --def Include definitions in results.
-f, --freq Include word frequency in results.
-p, --pos Include parts of speech in results.
-r, --pro Include pronunciation in results.
-s, --score Include score/ranking in results.
-y, --syl Include syllable count in results.

The --metadata flag

The --metadata flag allows you to request additional information about each word returned by Polyhymnia. Use a single-letter shorthand to quickly request common metadata:

Letter Meaning
d Definitions
f Word frequency
p Parts of speech
r Pronunciation
s Syllables

You can combine metadata types to return multiple pieces of information. For example, --metadata df is equivalent to using --def --freq.

Example:

This query finds words similar to “happiness,” includes definitions and word frequency data, and limits the results to the top two:

polyhymnia --max 2 --means-like "happiness" --metadata df
felicity
   Frequency: 1.319658
   Definition: n  (uncountable) Happiness; (countable) an instance of this.
   Definition: n  (uncountable) An apt and pleasing style in speech, writing, etc.; (countable) an apt and pleasing choice of words.

pleasure
   Frequency: 34.032901
   Definition: n  (uncountable) A state of being pleased or contented; gratification.
   Definition: n  (countable) A person, thing, or action that causes enjoyment.

For further customization and advanced features, explore the Usage Guide, Advanced Flags, and Examples.

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