def is_word(word_list, word):
    """ Determines if word is a valid word, ignoring
    capitalization and punctuation
    word_list (list): list of words in the dictionary.
    word (string): a possible word.

    Returns: True if word is in word_list, False otherwise

    Example:
    >> is_word(word_list, 'bat') returns
    True
    >> is_word(word_list, 'asdf') returns
    False
    """
    word = word.lower()
    word = word.strip(" !@#$%^&*()-_+={}[]|\:;'<>?,./\"")
    return word in word_list