diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/hfst-ospell/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/hfst-ospell/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ad07025cc35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/hfst-ospell/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, autoreconfHook
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, icu
+, libarchive
+, pkg-config
+}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
+  pname = "hfst-ospell";
+  version = "0.5.3";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "hfst";
+    repo = "hfst-ospell";
+    rev = "refs/tags/v${finalAttrs.version}";
+    hash = "sha256-16H1nbAIe+G71+TnlLG0WnH9LktZwmc0d0O+oYduH1k=";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    icu
+    libarchive
+  ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    autoreconfHook
+    pkg-config
+  ];
+
+  # libxmlxx is listed as a dependency but Darwin build fails with it,
+  # might also be better in general since libxmlxx in Nixpkgs is 8 years old
+  # https://github.com/hfst/hfst-ospell/issues/48#issuecomment-546535653
+  configureFlags = [
+    "--without-libxmlpp"
+    "--without-tinyxml2"
+  ];
+
+  meta = with lib; {
+    homepage = "https://github.com/hfst/hfst-ospell/";
+    description = "HFST spell checker library and command line tool ";
+    license = licenses.asl20;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ lurkki ];
+    platforms = platforms.unix;
+  };
+})
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 2871a4a6396..f40c9350352 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -41288,7 +41288,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   hfst = callPackage ../development/libraries/hfst { };
 
-  hfst-ospell = callPackage ../applications/misc/hfst-ospell { };
-
   omorfi = callPackage ../applications/misc/omorfi { };
+
+  hfst-ospell = callPackage ../development/libraries/hfst-ospell { };
 }