How to Add and Remove Words in Your Mac’s Built-In Dictionary
A Quick Introduction to the macOS Dictionary
The Dictionary application inside the Applications folder in your MAC Finder application allows you to search through detailed entries for thousands of words and phrases.
You can search for the meaning of words in the application itself, or you can take a shortcut and use the Spotlight (Cmd + Space) instead. And since the dictionary is built into your macOS, it would always automatically check your spelling in many Apple applications.
Now, let us see how to add and remove any word from your Mac finder Dictionary application. For the first part, we would focus on a couple of methods that you can use depending on whether you are dealing with just a handful of words or a long list of words. Whichever route you decide to follow, the result is always the same: custom words would get added to a simple text file behind the scenes.
How to Add Words to the Dictionary on macOS
Try this method if you want to add just add a few words or so to the dictionary application. But keep in mind that it does not work for some words. If you run into this problem, feel free to switch to the second method, that we would discuss in a bit.
Now, to add a word into the built-in dictionary on your Mac PC, open up the TextEdit application and type the word exactly as you want it to appear in the dictionary.
Next, select the whole word. Then, Control-click or right-click on it and click on Learn Spelling from the popup menu that follows.
Repeat this process for each word that you want to add to the dictionary. Once you are done with that, close the TextEdit document. You would not need to save the document. macOS would take care of adding the word and saving the dictionary file for you.
Going forward, the words that you added would not get flagged as misspelled the next time you type them in your keyboard.
How to Remove Words from the Dictionary on macOS
Did you make a typo while adding a word to the dictionary? Or you might want to clean up the dictionary by removing some of the words that you don’t make use of anymore? In any case, you can delete a word from the dictionary anytime you want.
The procedure is very much like adding a word to the dictionary application. Of course, it would only work for words that you added yourself and not for words that are included in the dictionary by default.
To remove a word from the built-in dictionary, open up a new TextEdit document and type the word you want to remove. Next, select the whole word, minus any spaces that surround it. Now, from the right-click menu or from the context menu, select Unlearn Spelling.
After you have done this for each word that you want to remove from the dictionary, go ahead and close the TextEdit document. Do not worry about saving it. Rest assured that those unwanted words are now removed from the dictionary.
Add, Remove, and Edit Words in Your Custom Word List
The custom word list that you have been adding words to and removing words from through TextEdit lives in your user Library folder in the form of a regular text file known as LocalDictionary. It is easier to edit this dictionary file directly when you have several words to add or to remove from the list.
To locate the file, you will need to open up your user Library. The easiest way to do that is to:
1. Open a Finder window and click on the Go menu.
2. Hold down the Option key to reveal hidden menu items.
3. Click on the Library menu item that shows up. (This item is automatically visible if you have set Finder to display hidden files.)
Once you are within your user Library, open the Spelling folder and select the LocalDictionary file. Now right-click on it and click on Open With > TextEdit.
In the file that comes up, you will see a list of the words that you have added to the dictionary. Feel free to edit this list to add more words or delete any of them. ensure that you put each word on a separate line. Once you are ready to wrap all up, hit on Cmd + S or click on File > Save to save the LocalDictionary file.
