Did you know you can easily add new words to spellcheck in Mac OS? By adding a new word, the spellcheck engine in Mac OS will stop flagging that word as a typo or spelling error, which is often shown as a red underline under the word. This is helpful for new words not actively in a dictionary, business names, general names, words from foreign languages, and even alternative spellings of words that are for whatever reason not identified by spellcheck in Mac OS. You can add or learn any new word you want to be approved by spell check this way.
We’ll show you how to easily add and learn a new word to spellcheck on the Mac.
How to Make Spellcheck Learn a New Word Spelling on Mac
For this example, let’s take a completely made up word called “kokotacoburger” and add that to our spell checker so that it no longer shows up as a typo.
- Open TextEdit in Mac OS and type the word you want to add to spellchecker, in this example it’s “kokotacoburger”
- Select the word to add to spellcheck, and then right-click on the word (or control+click)
- Choose “Learn Spelling” from the contextual menu to add the selected word to your spell check on the Mac
- Repeat with other words as necessary
Now you will be able to type “kokotacoburger” without it triggering your spellcheck as an erroneous word.
This can also be great for users who are typing a word properly but is continuously flagged as a typo and then autocorrected into a different word – a situation that can occur with some foreign words, names, and other scenarios. You can always turn off autocorrect on the Mac too, but adding a problematic word to the spellcheck function is an easy solution to this that does not involve turning off the typo correction feature.
By the way, if you’re not totally sure of the spelling of a word, you can always ask Siri to spell the word for you, or run it through the built-in spelling and grammar check tool in Mac OS.
How to Unlearn Spelling of a Word from Spellcheck on Mac
You can also unlearn a word that has been added to spellcheck, this is helpful for obvious reasons, including unlearning the example made-up word we just created “kokotacoburger”
- Type the word you want to unlearn from spellcheck, for example “kokotacoburger”
- Right-click on the word in question, then choose “Unlearn Spelling”
By the way, you can also turn off spellcheck on Mail, in Safari, or in in Pages and TextEdit too, which is certainly another valid option. Spellcheck is usually per-app, so it is not a system wide setting like autocorrect is in Mac OS.
A big thanks to Kevin for the great spellcheck tip left in our comments!
Do you have any tips, tricks, or ideas about spellcheck in Mac OS? Let us know in the comments below!
