Edit Custom Dictionary

How to edit your custom spelling dictionary

Every version of Word comes with not only a built-in lexicon for each of several languages but also a built-in user dictionary, CUSTOM.DIC, to which you can add words. The words in this dictionary are combined with the words in the lexicon to generate the list of words that Word considers “correct.” For example, although many surnames are included in the built-in lexicons, your surname may be an unusual one that is not included; to prevent it from being marked as misspelled every time you use it, you will want to add it to the user dictionary. You can also add jargon and technical terms frequently used in your writing but not recognized by Word.

There are several ways to add a word to the user dictionary:

In any version of Word, when “Check spelling as you type” is enabled, right-click on a word and select Add to Dictionary from the menu.
In Word 2010 and earlier, when running a spell check using F7 or the Spelling and Grammar button on the toolbar or Ribbon, click the Add to Dictionary button in Word’s Spelling and Grammar dialog.
In Word 2013 and above, when running a spell check using F7 or the Spelling & Grammar button in the Proofing group on the Review tab, click Add in the Spelling task pane.

But what if you have inadvertently added a misspelled word to your custom dictionary? Or what if you want to add a list of words all at once? Fortunately, it is easy to do either one.

Removing incorrect words

If you have fumbled and added a word you didn’t mean to add, here’s how to repair the damage.

In Word 2000 and earlier, go to Tools | Options | Spelling and Grammar and click the Dictionaries... button. Chances are you have only one user dictionary, CUSTOM.DIC, which will already be selected. Click on the Edit button. This will open the dictionary file as a text file. Find the word you inadvertently added and delete or correct it, then press Ctrl+S to save the file, and close it.
In Word 2002 or 2003, go to Tools | Options | Spelling and Grammar and click the Custom Dictionaries… button. In the Custom Dictionaries dialog, select CUSTOM.DIC and click on the Modify… button. This will open a dialog showing a list of words. Find the word you inadvertently added and delete or correct it, then click OK to close the dialog.
In Word 2007, go to Office Button | Word Options | Proofing and click on Custom Dictionaries… In the Custom Dictionaries dialog, select CUSTOM.DIC and click on Edit Word List… This will open a dialog showing a list of words. Find the word you inadvertently added and delete or correct it, then click OK to close the dialog.
In Word 2010. go to File | Options | Proofing and click on Custom Dictionaries… In the Custom Dictionaries dialog, select CUSTOM.DIC and click on Edit Word List… This will open a dialog showing a list of words. Find the word you inadvertently added and delete or correct it, then click OK to close the dialog.

The CUSTOM.DIC word list in Word 2010.

In Word 2013 and above, go to File | Options | Proofing and click on Custom Dictionaries… Unless you have changed it, the default custom dictionary will be Roaming.Custom.dic. Whichever dictionary is selected as the default will be the one to which words are added when you use Add to Dictionary.

The Custom Dictionaries dialog in Word 2021

Important Note: These instructions apply only to incorrectly spelled words in your custom dictionary. To “remove” a misspelled word from Word’s built-in dictionary, see “How to ‘remove’ a word from Word’s main spelling dictionary.”

Adding a list of words

In any version of Word, you can edit the word list directly by opening the file in a text editor such as Notepad. In order to do so, you must know the location of the CUSTOM.DIC file, which varies by version:

In Word 2003 and earlier, the path to that file is
C:\Users\<Profile Name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Proof\CUSTOM.DIC
In Word 2007 and above, the path is
C:\Users\<Profile Name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof\CUSTOM.DIC

Once you have the file open, you can paste in as many words as you want. They don’t have to be in alphabetical order, but they should be lowercase unless a word is correct only when capitalized. Note that only the words you explicitly add will be considered correct, so you must manually include plurals, past tense, etc.

Important Caveat: When you are editing a .dic file in Notepad or another text editor, you must be careful to save it in Unicode format. Any other choice of encoding will result in a file that Word won’t read. Fortunately, Unicode is the default format in Notepad, so you won’t have to worry about this provided you don’t change it.

Sidenote: The word list shown in the screen shot above is ridiculous. Word apparently added these “words” on its own initiative, as I certainly didn’t! The list was full of not only numbers but also very ordinary words that are already in Word's spelling lexicon. After taking this screen shot, I clicked Delete all and then opened the file in Notepad and pasted in the contents of the Word 2003 CUSTOM.DIC.

Additional dictionaries

Note in the screen shots above that the New… button allows you to create a new user dictionary. You can call this anything you want, but it will have the .dic file extension and be stored in the Proof or Uproof folder along with CUSTOM.DIC. You may want to do this if you have specific word lists used for specific purposes. There are several things to know about these additional user dictionaries:

To work properly, the language of CUSTOM.DIC should always be “All Languages.” But if you want an additional user dictionary to be used only when a specific language is in use, you can specify the language of the dictionary.
If the dictionary is enabled (there is a check mark in the box beside it in the Custom Dictionaries dialog) and its language matches that of the text, all its words will be included in checking spelling, along with those in CUSTOM.DIC and the lexicon for the current language.
When you click Add to Dictionary or Add, you are always adding a word to the default dictionary. Unless you have selected an additional dictionary as the default, the default is always CUSTOM.DIC (or RoamingCustom.dic in recent versions). If you want to add words to your additional dictionary as you go (as opposed to opening the word list directly), you must (temporarily) set it as the default.