diff --git a/src/include/ngspice/wordlist.h b/src/include/ngspice/wordlist.h
index 2978d0482..975ef19e7 100644
--- a/src/include/ngspice/wordlist.h
+++ b/src/include/ngspice/wordlist.h
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ void wl_delete_slice(wordlist *from, wordlist *to);
 wordlist *wl_find(const char *string, const wordlist *wlist);
 char * wl_flatten(const wordlist *wl);
 void wl_free(wordlist *wlist);
+void wl_delete(wordlist *wlist);
 wordlist *wl_from_string(const char *sz);
 int wl_length(const wordlist *wlist);
 char ** wl_mkvec(const wordlist *wl);
diff --git a/src/misc/wlist.c b/src/misc/wlist.c
index f6d9e2592..ff61071f2 100644
--- a/src/misc/wlist.c
+++ b/src/misc/wlist.c
@@ -39,6 +39,18 @@ wl_free(wordlist *wl)
     }
 }
 
+/* Free the storage used by the word list only,
+   but not the wl->wl_word. */
+void
+wl_delete(wordlist* wl)
+{
+    while (wl) {
+        wordlist* next = wl->wl_next;
+        tfree(wl);
+        wl = next;
+    }
+}
+
 
 /* Copy a wordlist and the words. */
 wordlist *