# Reloading dictionary decompounder word\_list\_path

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reloading-dictionary-decompounder-word-list-path/379206>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 16, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reloading-dictionary-decompounder-word-list-path/379206 "2025-06-16T13:27:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cweiske](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cweiske/32/11732_2.png) [@cweiske](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cweiske)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reloading-dictionary-decompounder-word-list-path/379206/1 "2025-06-16T13:27:24Z")

</div>

I've defined my own [dictionary\_decompounder](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/analysis-dict-decomp-tokenfilter.html) word list to cater for special words that are not matched by the German `hyphenation_decompounder`:

```auto
{
    "version": 3,
    "_meta": {
        "description": "Default index settings with German compound splitter analyzer (trennt zusammengesetzte Substantive)"
    },
    "priority": 500,
    "index_patterns": [
        "elasticsearch_index_drupal*_content_index"
    ],

    "template": {
        "settings": {
            "number_of_shards": 1,

            "analysis": {
                "filter": {
                    "german_filter": {
                        "type": "hyphenation_decompounder",
                        "word_list_path": "analyzer/dictionary-de.txt",
                        "hyphenation_patterns_path": "analyzer/de_DR.xml",
                        "only_longest_match": true,
                        "min_subword_size": 4
                    },
                    "german_filter_custom": {
                        "type": "dictionary_decompounder",
                        "word_list": ["bot", "chat", "gpt"]
                    },
     [...]

```

Modifying this word list in the template requires me to update the [index template](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/index-templates.html), and then I have to drop and re-create all indices. This is fine for rare changes, but tedious if you do it more often. (I could also update the index configuration, but I have many indices and I don't want to update all of them)

I thought about using `word_list_path` instead of the `word_list`, so that new partial words could be written into that file. Indices would get the new words without modification.

Now my question: Does Elasticsearch 7.17 pick up changes to the word list files automatically, or do I have to restart ES to get changes to them applied?

* * *

Keyword: hot reloading

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john-wagster](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/john-wagster/32/139021_2.png) [@john-wagster](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/john-wagster)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reloading-dictionary-decompounder-word-list-path/379206/2 "2025-06-16T15:40:53Z")

</div>

It does not automatically pick up changes to the file. But you do not have to completely restart ES. You should be able to close and then reopen the index and that will refresh the file.

```auto
curl -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/test_index/_close"
curl -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/test_index/_open"

```

That's probably the best way I can think of right off to do so if you don't want to update the word lists across all of the indices you have. But it's worth noting that opening and closing leaves the index in an unworkable state for a bit while it opens back up and causes some resource churn; so there's some downsides to this approach. Should be faster than a restart though.

You might consider scripting out the `word_list` updates for all of your indices as an alternative.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cweiske](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cweiske/32/11732_2.png) [@cweiske](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cweiske)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reloading-dictionary-decompounder-word-list-path/379206/3 "2025-06-18T11:15:33Z")

</div>

Thank you!