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How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word

By Erin Wright 7 Comments

Microsoft Word’s spell-check is quite good. However, it occasionally puts that squiggly red line under something that is spelled correctly. Maybe it’s a product, place, or company name. Maybe it’s a person’s first or last name. Regardless, most of us just right-click and select “Add to Dictionary” if we know we’ll be using that word again.

But, have you ever wondered where all those words go once you’ve added them to your custom dictionary in Word? And more importantly, have you ever wondered if you could update your custom dictionary in Word? If so, this tutorial is for you because it shows how to access and edit your custom dictionary in Word.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than fifty other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Office 365, which is currently the same as Word 2019. However, the steps are the same for Word 2016 and Word 2013 and similar for Word 2010.

Visit “How to Create a Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word” for step-by-step instructions on creating custom dictionaries that can be applied to individual documents in Word.

Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

1. Select the File tab.

Image of the File tab in Word | Step 1 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

2. Select Options in the Backstage view.

Image of the Backstage View in Word | Step 2 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

3. Select Proofing in the Word Options dialog box.

Image of the Word Options Dialog Box | Step 3 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

4. Select the Custom Dictionaries button in the When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs section.

Image of the Word Options Dialog Box Custom Dictionaries Button | Step 4 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

5. Select RoamingCustom.dic (Default) in the Custom Dictionaries dialog box. (You may also see a dictionary called Custom.dic., which is a carryover from Word 2010 and Word 2007. You can edit Custom.dic using the same method shown here.)

Image of the Custom Dictionary Dialog Box Dictionary List | Step 5 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

Pro Tip: These steps apply to all custom dictionaries, so you can select any dictionary listed in the Custom Dictionaries dialog box.

6. Select the Edit Word List button.

Image of the Custom Dictionaries Dialog Box Edit Word List Button | Step 6 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

7. Use the RoamingCustom.dic dialog box to add or delete words from your custom dictionary.

Image of the RoamingCustom.dic Dialog Box Add and Delete Options | Step 7 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

8. Select the OK button to save your changes and close the RoamingCustom.dic dialog box.
Image of the RoamingCustom.dic Dialog Box OK Button | Step 8 in How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Word

Pro Tip: RoamingCustom.dic is the default custom dictionary file for your entire Microsoft Office suite, so you can edit it from any of your other Office programs by following steps similar to those shown above.

Related Resources

How to Create an Exclusion Dictionary in Microsoft Word

Four Tips for Using the Spelling and Grammar Check in Word

7 Comments Filed Under: Microsoft Word Tagged With: dictionaries, spelling, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019, Word 365

Home » How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word
Technical Writer and Editor Erin Wright

Meet the Author

Hello! My name is Erin. I am a technical writer and editor who shares step-by-step software tutorials and writing tips for the real world on this blog and YouTube

You can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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Comments

  1. Hashim Osman says

    April 28, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    Thank you so much, I really appreciate your effort. This was really easy.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      April 29, 2015 at 5:26 am

      I’m glad the information helped! Thank you for visiting!

      Reply
  2. Gerard says

    May 7, 2020 at 2:20 am

    Thanks legend

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      May 8, 2020 at 3:43 pm

      Thank you for visiting!

      Reply
  3. A Bemused Word User says

    October 13, 2020 at 5:29 am

    Dear Erin,
    Your help is invaluable. Thanks for it.

    Can I ask a question about editing Word custom dictionaries, please?

    I find I can add a word to my default custom dictionary. But I cannot find a way to make the dictionary outlaw a “bad” version of the word. A case in point this morning is “vicuña” (which I have added). But Word spell checker, or “auto correct as I type does not flag up the unaccented version of the word as wrong. I have also added brûlée and it is flagged up as wrong, with no sensible alternative offered. So a similarly perverse outcome, IMHO.

    It would be great if you could help me here.

    Thanks again.

    “A bemused Word user”

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      October 15, 2020 at 2:35 pm

      Thank you for visiting my blog! You can set up an “exclusion” custom dictionary in Word to help with the issue you described. It’s more in-depth than I can explain here in a comment; however, I do plan to do a full tutorial on that topic in the future. Until then, you may want to search the internet for the term “exclusion dictionary in Word.” It looks like quite a bit of information does pop up in the results. Best of luck!

      Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      December 28, 2020 at 11:00 am

      Hello, Bemused. I just posted the tutorial about how to create an exclusion dictionary in Microsoft Word: https://erinwrightwriting.com/exclusion-dictionary-in-microsoft-word/.

      -Erin

      Reply

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