Add words to the Grafana Labs dictionary

The Grafana Labs documentation team maintains a dictionary used for spell checking. The same dictionary is used to generate some Vale rules from the metadata in the word definition.

The template file uses the Jsonnet programming language but you don’t need to know Jsonnet to add a new word. Unlike YAML, Jsonnet isn’t sensitive to whitespace.

This topic explains how to perform the following tasks:

Add a general word (noun, verb, or adjective)
Add a product name
Add an abbreviation

For more complicated words, if you’re comfortable with writing Jsonnet, refer to word metadata reference. If you’re not comfortable writing Jsonnet, create an issue, and a maintainer can add it for you.

Before you begin

Clone the Writers’ Toolkit repository.
For more information, refer to Create a local repository.
Create a branch for your change.
For more information, refer to Create a branch from the default remote branch.

Add a general word (noun, verb, or adjective)

A noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing. A verb generally describes an action. Adjectives describe nouns.

Steps

To add a general word:

Open the vale/dictionary/<LETTER>.jsonnet template file in your editor where LETTER is the first letter of the word you want to add.
Add a line for your word definition.
Your line goes in the array, between the other entries. Entries look like the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new(<STEM>, <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
The entries are ordered alphabetically.
Fill out the required fields <STEM>, <AFFIXES>, and <PART OF SPEECH>.
1. Replace <STEM> with the word stem.
  This is the word without any prefixes or suffixes. For the verb downsampling, the stem is downsample.
  You must put the word stem between single quotes (').
  Your line should look similar to the following:
  jsonnet
```
word.new('downsample', <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
2. Replace <AFFIXES> with the concatenation of the Hunspell affixes.
  To learn which affixes you can add, refer to the Hunspell affixes table.
  You must put the affixes between single quotes (').
  To add affixes for the past tense and gerund forms, your line should look similar to the following:
  jsonnet
```
word.new('downsample', 'DG', <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
3. Replace <PART OF SPEECH> with the part of speech.
  For verbs, this is 'verb'. For nouns, this is 'noun'. For adjectives, this is 'adjective'.
  Your completed line should look similar to the following:
  jsonnet
```
word.new('downsample', 'DG', 'verb'),
```
If the word isn’t well known, extend the definition to include a description: description: <DESCRIPTION>.
The description should define the word.
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('downsample', 'DG', 'verb') { description: 'To reduce the sampling rate of a signal.' },
```

Add a product name

A product can be a Grafana Labs’ product, another company’s product, or the name of a project.

Steps

To add a product:

Open the vale/dictionary/<LETTER>.jsonnet template file in your editor where LETTER is the first letter of the word you want to add.
Add a line for your word definition.
Your line goes in the array, between the other entries. Entries look like the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new(<STEM>, <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
The entries are ordered alphabetically.
Fill out the required fields <STEM>, <AFFIXES>, and <PART OF SPEECH>.
1. Replace <STEM> with the word stem.
  For products, this is the product name.
  jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
2. Replace <AFFIXES> with the concatenation of the Hunspell affixes.
  Products generally have no affixes.
  jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', '', <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
3. Replace <PART OF SPEECH> with the part of speech.
  For products, this is 'noun'.
  Your line should look similar to the following:
  jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', '', 'noun'),
```
Extend the definition to indicate it’s a product.
Add the object { product: true } between the right bracket ()), and the end of line comma (,).
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', '', 'noun') { product: true },
```
If the product is an Amazon product, extend the definition to include this.
Update the object to have an additional field, Amazon: true.
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', '', 'noun') { Amazon: true, product: true },
```
Extend the definition to include a description: description: <DESCRIPTION>.
The description should at least include a link to the product’s primary documentation.
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('CloudWatch', '', 'noun') { Amazon: true, description: 'https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/WhatIsCloudWatch.html', product: true },
```

Add an abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a phrase. If the abbreviation is commonly known, like HTTP, you don’t need to explain it in your writing. You can say that the abbreviation is commonly known in your definition.

Steps

To add an abbreviation:

Open the vale/dictionary/<LETTER>.jsonnet template file in your editor where LETTER is the first letter of the word you want to add.
Add a line for your word definition.
Your line goes in the array, between the other entries. Entries look like the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new(<STEM>, <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
The entries are ordered alphabetically.
Fill out the required fields <STEM>, <AFFIXES>, and <PART OF SPEECH>.
1. Replace <STEM> with the word stem.
  For abbreviation, this is the abbreviation letters.
  jsonnet
```
word.new('SUT', <AFFIXES>, <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
2. Replace <AFFIXES> with the concatenation of the Hunspell affixes.
  To learn which affixes you can add, refer to the Hunspell affixes table.
  You must put the affixes between single quotes (').
  Some abbreviations have a plural suffix. To add the plural suffix, include s. All affixes are case sensitive.
  jsonnet
```
word.new('SUT', 's', <PART OF SPEECH>),
```
3. Replace <PART OF SPEECH> with the part of speech.
  For abbreviations, this is 'noun'.
  Your line should look similar to the following:
  jsonnet
```
word.new('SUT', 's', 'noun'),
```
Extend the definition to indicate it’s an abbreviation.
Add the object { abbreviation: true } between the right bracket ()), and the end of line comma (,).
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('SUT', 's', 'noun') { abbreviation: true },
```
Extend the definition to include a description: description: <DESCRIPTION>.
The description should at least include the expanded abbreviation.
Your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('SUT', 's', 'noun') { abbreviation: true, description: 'System Under Test' },
```
If you don’t need to expand the abbreviation for the general reader, extend the definition to include this.
Update the object to have an additional field, established_abbreviation: true.
For the well-known abbreviation HTTP, your line should look similar to the following:
jsonnet
```
word.new('HTTP', '', 'noun') { abbreviation: true, description: 'Hypertext Transfer Protocol', established_abbreviation: true },
```