How to unlearn spelling when I don't have the "Unlearn Spelling" menu item?

I would like to unlearn the spelling of some words.


In various posts I read about a contextual menu entry called "Unlearn Spelling" but I can't find it anywhere.


So, can anyone tell me how to unlearn words?

Does anyone know how to bring up the Unlearn menu item?

Or is there any other way to unlearn words?


TIA,

Gab.

iPhone 4S, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Feb 8, 2012 3:08 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2013 4:51 AM

Dear Gabriel,


you can only unlearn words that you have learned before. They are in your user dictionary (the one in ~/Library/Spelling, in your Home folder).


You can test this with TextEdit:


1. Type a nonsensical word.

2. Right-click and choose "Learn Spelling" from the contest menu.

3. Right-click and choose "Unlearn Spelling" from the context menu.


If this was not the reason for your problem, please post again.

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2013 4:51 AM in response to GabrielZ

Dear Gabriel,


you can only unlearn words that you have learned before. They are in your user dictionary (the one in ~/Library/Spelling, in your Home folder).


You can test this with TextEdit:


1. Type a nonsensical word.

2. Right-click and choose "Learn Spelling" from the contest menu.

3. Right-click and choose "Unlearn Spelling" from the context menu.


If this was not the reason for your problem, please post again.

Mar 19, 2015 3:33 AM in response to GabrielZ

I have the same problem. For whatever reason, "gunownership" was never in the U.S. English dictionary, but "gunownershipr" (notice the "r" at the end) is.


I didn't tell the dictionary to learn this word, so it's not in my LocalDictionary, and I have no idea how to remove this. I've now had "gunownership" added to the local dictionary so that it won't keep correcting it to "gunownershipr", but "gunownershipr" is still treated as a correct spelling and gets suggested as an alternative if I misspell "gunownership".


Did my copy of Yosemite ship with a faulty dictionary? How do I correct this?

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How to unlearn spelling when I don't have the "Unlearn Spelling" menu item?

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