diff --git a/lucene/contrib/spellchecker/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spell/SuggestWordScoreComparator.java b/lucene/contrib/spellchecker/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spell/SuggestWordScoreComparator.java
index ad46a2d3eb3..6ddbf3355f5 100644
--- a/lucene/contrib/spellchecker/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spell/SuggestWordScoreComparator.java
+++ b/lucene/contrib/spellchecker/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spell/SuggestWordScoreComparator.java
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import java.util.Comparator;
  * Score first, then frequency
  *
  **/
-class SuggestWordScoreComparator implements Comparator<SuggestWord> {
+public class SuggestWordScoreComparator implements Comparator<SuggestWord> {
   @Override
   public int compare(SuggestWord first, SuggestWord second) {
     // first criteria: the distance