languagetool-org/languagetool · error · RuntimeException

Frequency out of range (0-255): ${normalizedFreq} in word ${

Error message

Frequency out of range (0-255): ${normalizedFreq} in word ${key}

What it means

Sanity guard in DictionaryBuilder.addFreqData: after log normalization a word's frequency maps outside the byte range 0-255, indicating a broken frequency value or corrupted freq list.

Source

Thrown at languagetool-tools/src/main/java/org/languagetool/tools/DictionaryBuilder.java:178

      String line;
      int maxFreq = Collections.max(freqList.values());
      double maxFreqLog = Math.log(maxFreq);
      while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
        Matcher m = pTaggerEntry.matcher(line);
        if (m.matches()) {
          int freq = 0;
          String key = m.group(1);
          if (freqList.containsKey(key)) {
            freq = freqList.get(key);
            freqValuesApplied++;
          }
          int normalizedFreq = freq;
          if (freq > 0 && maxFreq > 255) {
            double freqZeroToOne = Math.log(freq) / maxFreqLog;  // spread number better over the range
            normalizedFreq = (int) (freqZeroToOne * (FREQ_RANGES_IN-1));  // 0 to 255
          }
          if (normalizedFreq < 0 || normalizedFreq > 255) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Frequency out of range (0-255): " + normalizedFreq + " in word " + key);
          }
          // Convert integers 0-255 to ranges A-Z, and write output 
          String freqChar = Character.toString((char) (FIRST_RANGE_CODE + normalizedFreq*FREQ_RANGES_OUT/FREQ_RANGES_IN));
          //add separator only in speller dictionaries
          if (useSeparator) { 
            bw.write(line + separator + freqChar + "\n");  
          } else {
            bw.write(line + freqChar + "\n");
          }
        }
      }
      System.out.println(freqList.size() + " frequency values applied to " + freqValuesApplied + " word forms.");
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new RuntimeException("Cannot read file: " + dictFile.getAbsolutePath());
    }
    return tempFile;
  }
  

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Check the frequency list for malformed or extreme entries
2. Ensure the tagger list and frequency list cover consistent words
3. Recompute the frequency list from a clean corpus

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at languagetool-tools/src/main/java/org/languagetool/tools/DictionaryBuilder.java:178 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6280b2dbdb947933. Report an issue: GitHub.