diff --git a/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp b/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
index 67029bdf..67061bc8 100644
--- a/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
+++ b/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
@@ -270,6 +270,7 @@ public:
 #endif
 	    // Got a non-empty sort-of appropriate term, let's send it to
 	    // aspell
+	    LOGDEB2(("ASpExecPv: [%s]\n", m_input->c_str()));
 	    m_input->append("\n");
 	    return;
 	}
@@ -454,7 +455,8 @@ RclConfig *rclconfig;
 static char usage [] =
 " -b : build dictionary\n"
 " -s <term>: suggestions for term\n"
-"\n\n"
+" -c <term>: check term\n"
+"\n"
 ;
 static void
 Usage(void)
@@ -467,6 +469,7 @@ static int     op_flags;
 #define OPT_MOINS 0x1
 #define OPT_s	  0x2 
 #define OPT_b	  0x4 
+#define OPT_c     0x8
 
 int main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
@@ -483,6 +486,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	while (**argv)
 	    switch (*(*argv)++) {
 	    case 'b':	op_flags |= OPT_b; break;
+	    case 'c':	op_flags |= OPT_c; if (argc < 2)  Usage();
+		word = *(++argv);
+		argc--; 
+		goto b1;
 	    case 's':	op_flags |= OPT_s; if (argc < 2)  Usage();
 		word = *(++argv);
 		argc--; 
@@ -526,6 +533,18 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	    cerr << "buildDict failed: " << reason << endl;
 	    exit(1);
 	}
+    } else if (op_flags & OPT_c) {
+	bool ret = aspell.check(word, reason);
+	if (!ret && reason.size()) {
+	    cerr << "Aspell error: " << reason << endl;
+	    return 1;
+	}
+	cout << word;
+	if (ret) {
+	    cout << " is in dictionary" << endl;
+	} else {
+	    cout << " not in dictionary" << endl;
+	}
     } else {
 	list<string> suggs;
 	if (!aspell.suggest(rcldb, word, suggs, reason)) {
diff --git a/src/aspell/rclaspell.h b/src/aspell/rclaspell.h
index b969aa75..a493b5d9 100644
--- a/src/aspell/rclaspell.h
+++ b/src/aspell/rclaspell.h
@@ -54,7 +54,12 @@ class Aspell {
      * of an indexing pass. */
     bool buildDict(Rcl::Db &db, std::string &reason);
 
-    /** Check that word is in dictionary. ret==false && !reason.empty() => err*/
+    /** Check that word is in dictionary. Note that this would mean
+     * that the EXACT word is: aspell just does a lookup, no
+     * grammatical, case or diacritics magic of any kind
+     *
+     * @return true if word in dic, false if not. reason.size() -> error
+     */
     bool check(const std::string& term, std::string& reason);
 
     /** Return a list of possible expansions for a given word */