public boolean removeFile( String removeFile ) {
        
        // if the file does not exist in the list of the files parsed, exit
        // the method
        if( ! filesParsed.contains( removeFile ) ) {
            return false;
        }
        
        // create an iterator to parse through all the key value sets in the words hashmap
        Iterator<Entry<String, HashMap<String, HashSet<Integer>>>> iterator = wordsHashMap.entrySet().iterator();
        
        // remove the finelname from all key-value pairs
        while( iterator.hasNext() ) {
            iterator.next().getValue().remove( removeFile );
        }

        // remove all words that don't have any filenames associated with it
        iterator = wordsHashMap.entrySet().iterator();
        
        while( iterator.hasNext() ) {            
            if( iterator.next().getValue().isEmpty() ) {
                iterator.remove();
            }
        }
             
        // remove the file from the list of parsed files
        filesParsed.remove( removeFile );

        return true;
    }