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.
2. Select Options in the Backstage view.
3. Select Proofing in the Word Options dialog box.
4. Select the Custom Dictionaries button in the When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs section.
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.)
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.
7. Use the RoamingCustom.dic dialog box to add or delete words from your custom dictionary.
8. Select the OK button to save your changes and close the RoamingCustom.dic dialog box.
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.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate your effort. This was really easy.
I’m glad the information helped! Thank you for visiting!
Thanks legend
Thank you for visiting!
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”
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!
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