diff --git a/lib/natural/wordnet/wordnet_file.js b/lib/natural/wordnet/wordnet_file.js
index a80486dfa..5967ad754 100644
--- a/lib/natural/wordnet/wordnet_file.js
+++ b/lib/natural/wordnet/wordnet_file.js
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ function appendLineChar(fd, pos, buffPos, buff, callback) {
       console.log(err);
     else {
       if(buff[buffPos] == 10 || buffPos == buff.length)
-        callback(buff.slice(0, buffPos).toString('ASCII'));
+        callback(buff.slice(0, buffPos).toString('UTF-8'));
       else {
         appendLineChar(fd, pos + 1, buffPos + 1, buff, callback);
       }