#!/bin/bash declare -A acr if [ $# -ne 1 ] then echo "Missing filename" exit 1 fi for word in `cat $1` do if [ -v "acr[$word]" ] then acr[$word]=$((acr[$word]+1)) else acr[$word]=1 fi done for key in ${!acr[*]} do echo "${key}: ${acr[$key]}" done