How-To

How to View and Edit the Personal Dictionary in Google Docs

By Adam Davidson

Published January 26, 2024

Google Docs lets you add words to the dictionary if you wish. Learn how to view and edit the personal dictionary in Google Docs.

Spell checking is one of the most useful tools of any word processing software. The Oxford English Dictionary has more than 300,000 entries. This makes it very unlikely that you’re going to remember how to spell every single one of them correctly. Spell-checking features highlight any errors to ensure that if you spell something wrong, you can spot it and fix it. You could easily find yourself needing to view or edit your personal dictionary in Google Docs, though.

There could be words that you want to use in your documents that don’t appear in the main dictionary. These could be relatively new words, such as “rizz” or technical terms that don’t appear in the dictionary for your word processing software. If you’re using spell check in Google Docs, the good news is that you can add words to your personal dictionary if you want to use them in your document and you know that they’re correctly spelled. If you change your mind, you can delete these words from the personal dictionary. Then, those words will once again show up as spelling errors in your document. Here’s how to view and edit the personal dictionary in Google Docs.

What is the Personal Dictionary in Google Docs?

Google Docs comes with its own dictionary, which it uses to spell-check the text in your document. However, the dictionary isn’t exhaustive, and there may be some words missing. There may also be a slang term or other words that you use frequently in your documents that aren’t part of the dictionary. In these cases, the Google Docs spell check highlights the words as if they are spelling errors.

To solve this problem, Google Docs allows you to create your own personal dictionary. Then you can add words that aren’t part of the main Google Docs dictionary. Doing so stops the spell checker from flagging these words as misspelled. You can add and remove words from your personal dictionary whenever you want. The personal dictionary will apply across all of your Google documents when signed in to the same Google account.

How to View the Personal Dictionary in Google Docs

When you add words to your personal dictionary in Google Docs, they will remain there until you remove them. If you’ve added a word by mistake, Google Docs won’t flag that word as incorrect, so you may end up creating documents with spelling errors in them. With techniques such as text substitutions, it’s all too easy to quickly fill your document with spelling errors. That’s why it’s a good idea to take a look at the words that you’ve added to the personal dictionary now and again to ensure that there’s nothing in there that shouldn’t be.

1. Open Google Docs and sign in with your Google account.
2. Click the Tools menu.
   
3. Select Spelling & Grammar > Personal Dictionary.
   
4. You’ll see the personal dictionary, with any words that you’ve added listed in the main part of the window.
   

How to Add Words to the Personal Dictionary from Your Document

If you want to add words to your personal dictionary, you can do it directly from the document that you’re working on. When Google Docs spell check is on, it will highlight any word that’s not in either the main dictionary or your personal dictionary. You can add that word to your personal dictionary if you believe it is spelled correctly.

1. Find a word you believe is spelled correctly that has been highlighted by Google Docs spell check as a spelling error.
   
2. Right-click the highlighted word.
3. Select Add to Personal Dictionary.
   
4. The word is added to your personal dictionary, and the highlighting should disappear.
5. Whenever you type the word in the future, it should no longer show as a spelling error.

How to Edit the Personal Dictionary in Google Docs

When you open the personal dictionary in Google Docs, you have the option to manually add or remove words from the list. If you know you’re going to be frequently using a word that isn’t in the main dictionary, or you want to remove a word that you added in error, you can do so directly from the personal dictionary. You can add or remove as many words as you wish. It’s important to note that if you use a third-party spelling and grammar checker, such as Grammarly, this tool may override the Google Docs spell checking, so words that you add to your Google Docs personal dictionary may still be flagged.

1. Open Google Docs and sign in with your Google account.
2. Click Tools in the menu bar.
   
3. Click Spelling & Grammar > Personal Dictionary.
   
4. To add a new word to your personal dictionary, type it into the Add a New Word field. Take care to spell the word correctly.
   
5. Click Add to add the word to your personal dictionary.
   
6. The new word will appear in the list of words added to your personal dictionary.
   
7. To remove a word from your personal dictionary, select the word in the main list.
8. Click the Trash Can icon.
   
9. The word is removed from the personal dictionary.
10. When you’ve finished making the edit to your Google Docs personal dictionary, click OK to close it.

How to Change the Dictionary Language in Google Docs

One common reason why you may see words highlighted by Google Docs spell check when they have the correct spelling is because Google Docs is using the wrong language. If your language is set to English (United Kingdom), for example, words such as “color” and “aluminum” will be flagged as spelling errors. You can change the default language in Google Docs in just a couple of clicks.

1. Open Google Docs and click the File menu.
   
2. Select Language.
   
3. From the list of available languages, select the language that you want to write in. The currently selected language shows a check mark.
   
4. Once you’ve made your selection, the spell checker will only look for spelling errors in the language you’ve selected.

When to Add Words to Your Personal Dictionary in Google Docs

When you see spelling errors in your Google Docs, it’s very tempting to just add them all to your personal dictionary to get rid of all those red lines. However, if you add a misspelled word to your personal dictionary, then Google Docs will stop flagging it, even though it’s a spelling error. Remember that these settings apply across all of your Google documents, so if you add a word with the incorrect spelling, it won’t show up as an error across any of your other documents, either.

You should only add words to your personal dictionary when you’re sure that the words are spelled correctly, and you’re happy that Google Docs will ignore this word across any other Google documents that you work on in the future. If in doubt, it’s best to leave the word out of your personal dictionary, so that you can decide whether to include the word as spelled each time you use it in a document.

Viewing and Editing the Personal Dictionary in Google Docs

Viewing and editing the personal dictionary in Google Docs allows you to personalize the spell-checking feature so that correctly spelled words that aren’t part of the main dictionary don’t constantly get flagged. If you use this feature with care, it can make your life a little easier, as when you’re proofreading your document, you’ll only have to check those words that are genuine errors. It’s important to remember that the personal dictionary applies across all of your Google documents, so you should take care to use it wisely and regularly check the personal dictionary to see what words are included.