An example – revisited again
>>> wordcount = {}
>>> for word in file(‘a_file.txt’).read().split():
...     word = word.lower()
...    if word not in wordcount:
...         wordcount[word] = 1
...    else:
...         wordcount[word] = wordcount[word]+1
...
>>> print wordcount
{‘python’:64, ‘monty’:2, ‘a’:666, ...