How To Remove Misspelled Words from Chrome Dictionary
These instructions work on OSX 10.11.3 – But I cannot confirm that they will work on older versions of the OS.
If you’re like me, and you’ve accidentally added words to your Mac’s dictionary while using Chrome’s spell check functionality, you may be frustrated by the lack of an easy way to remove them. It’s extremely handy, but with the “add to dictionary” option right below the correction option, it’s incredibly easy to do.
What isn’t easy is to find out how to remove the word from the custom dictionary, and because it’s probably one that you will misspell again (if you’re like me), it just spells trouble in that future email where you cannot write “tommorow” correctly.
Unlike other operating systems, you cannot find the custom dictionary in Chrome’s settings, because it stores the words in your Mac’s profile options.
Step 1: Open Terminal
You can find terminal in your applications folder under Utilities. Or you can just press Command > Spacebar and type “Terminal” and hit enter.
Step 2: Type into terminal: open ~/Library/Spelling/
Then hit enter. This will open up a finder window with several different files in it.
Step 3: Option-Drag the LocalDictionary file to your desktop.
This step backs up the file to your desktop in case you make a mistake and want to recover the file.
Step 4: Double click the LocalDictionary file and open with Text Edit
Step 5: Remove the word(s) you added by mistake, and then save with Command>S.
Once you have restarted your computer, chrome will no longer recognize those misspelled words as correctly spelled words, which will mean fewer typos in your emails.
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Really helpful, thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you very much!! Took forever to figure this out.
Thank you, finally the real solution!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!
THANK YOU! This was driving me crazy!
Hello, followed those steps. Removed the words, saved the file (which is now empty), restarted, but these are still not recognised as misspelt in Chrome. What am I doing wrong?
Same! Its empty and I saved it but still having the same issue.
Third that! Still the same issue in gmail after saving the file
Thank you! This was really driving me nuts.
THis solution did not work on MAC OSX10.9.5
the file only had two entries, and not the word I was looking for.
Do you have an updated fix for this ?
Google chrome Version 48.0.2564.97 (64-bit)
This works on 10.11.3 El Capitan, but I cannot confirm if it would work on older versions of OS X.
I can’t get past step 1. when i put that code into terminal, i get this in response. Please tell me you can help. otherwise i will forever be spelling “the” like “teh”. not good!
Last login: Thu Feb 11 13:09:04 on ttys000
Tammys-Desktop:~ tammygates$ open ~/Library/Spelling/
The file /Users/tammygates/Library/Spelling does not exist.
Tammys-Desktop:~ tammygates$
Thank you!
Amazing!! Thank you
I LOVE YOU
THANK YOU!!! Finally some simple instructions that actually worked!
Thank you!!
THANK YOU!!! Have been looking for how to do this for months…
AWESOME, thanks. VERY clear instructions. so often you can’t find good clear instruction.
I get the same response in terminal as Tammie – I tried it several times. Any suggestions?
Thanks for making my day with clear instructions, and you have saved me from professional embarassments, erm, I mean, embarrassments! 🙂 I would leave a $tip if I could. Thank you!!!
I have followed all the instructions, but when I go into Chrome, these misspellings still appear! I have deleted all the words in my dictionary to be on the safe side, but still no joy! I am on El Capitan so it’s not an issue with that. Any ideas?!?
Thanks! Great tip.
THANK YOU!! You saved me!
Thank you!! Your page ought to be the top search result for this topic!
Thank you so freaking much!
You are a masterblaster – thank you!
THANK YOU!! I spent almost 45 minutes trying to figure this out on my own. You are a lifesaver. I misspell way too many words.
Thank you so much!!!! I was having so much trouble with this!! You’re the best!!