How to Edit Your Ignored Words and Phrases in WordPress

Here’s the scenario: You’ve written and edited the perfect blog post in Microsoft Word, so you copy it into WordPress for publication. Just to be on the safe side, you run the Proofread Writing tool before clicking the publish button. WordPress tells you that the name of your beta project, WackiFeet, is spelled incorrectly throughout the post. But, you know that the spelling is correct, so you choose to Ignore always, which adds WackiFeet to your site-wide Ignored Phrases list. Later on, you regret this decision because the project’s name may change before the official launch. Instead of living with regret, you can edit your ignored words and phrases in WordPress in four easy steps.

1. After logging into your WordPress account, select Users and then Your Profile.

2. Select the X next to any unwanted words listed under Ignored Phrases.

3. If necessary, add new words into the text box above the Ignored Phrases list.

4. Click Update Profile at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Please note that the Ignored Phrases list only applies to words you ignore while using the Proofread Writing tool shown below. Proofread Writing is part of the Jetpack by WordPress.com plugin available to both WordPress.com and WordPress.org users. (WordPress itself no longer includes a spell-check tool.)

If you notice that your content is automatically spell-checked before using the Proofread Writing tool, then your browser is probably set to automatically spell-check anything entered into a text box. In that case, you can choose Add to Dictionary or a similar option to add words to your browser’s custom dictionary file; however, that file can’t be edited through WordPress.

If you crave even more control over your personal dictionaries, check out How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word.