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I'm trying to find the dictionary file for Google Chrome on OS X - I'd like to remove certain words from the dictionary so that I don't use them when writing email (such as 'foolish' for example).

In Firefox, this was a simply a matter of editing the dictionary file, but I'm not sure were I would find it in Chrome?

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6 Answers 6

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31

It doesn't appear that there is a user-editable file with the default dictionary in it. I just looked through the .app folder and saw nothing like a dictionary. Also, ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Dictionaries/ doesn't list any dictionaries.

OS X

The file for the custom dictionary is:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Custom Dictionary.txt

You may also find it at:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Custom Dictionary.txt

In the comments, it's mentioned that you can find “misclicks” here, too, which is related to how OS X handles its dictionary:

/Users/<user>/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary

Windows XP and Windows 7/Vista

It appears it's in (for Windows XP and Vista/7, respectively):

C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Custom Dictionary.txt
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Custom Dictionary.txt

Linux

The location depends on whether you're running Chromium or Google Chrome

Chrome: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Custom Dictionary.txt

Chromium: ~/.config/chromium/Default/Custom Dictionary.txt

If you are using a non-default profile, instead of the directory named Default, check for a directory named Profile n where n is a number starting from 1.

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  • 2
    In my case, it is in ...\Chrome\User Data`Default`\Custom Dictionary.txt
    – ROMANIA_engineer
    Nov 19, 2014 at 14:36
  • I am adding this because I misread the previous statement as a folder name User Data Default instead of two folders User Data\Default C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Custom Dictionary.txt. This is in Windows 7 and using Chrome 44.0.2403.125.
    – JabberwockyDecompiler
    Aug 4, 2015 at 15:01
  • I second @helpYou. Perhaps it changed for Yosemite or other new versions of OS X? It's worth a +1 if anyone figures that out.
    – intcreator
    Aug 23, 2015 at 0:53
  • Maybe you know where is this dictionary at Linux?
    – Vitaly Zdanevich
    Feb 10, 2016 at 11:18
  • @VitalyZdanevich Probably ~/.config/google-chrome/Custom Dictionary.txt. Please confirm if that's where it is.
    – slhck
    Feb 10, 2016 at 12:27
19

For future reference, I found it under:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Custom Dictionary.txt

OSX Lion 10.7.4
Chrome 19.0.1084.56
June 2012

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  • Still in the Chrome/Default/ folder on nearly four years later on Yosemite. :)
    – Zlatty
    Mar 15, 2016 at 15:18
  • 1
    Works on El Capitan too.
    – WilliamKF
    Apr 28, 2016 at 1:40
  • 2
    Also you may want to correct it in: ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary too
    – WilliamKF
    Aug 22, 2016 at 0:49
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Add a new word to the dictionary

If the spell-checker keeps underlining a word that you often use, right-click the word and select Add to dictionary.

Windows, Chrome OS, and Linux only: Words that you choose to add to the dictionary are added to your "Custom spelling dictionary".

Edit your Custom spelling dictionary

  1. Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.

  2. Select Settings.

  3. Click Show advanced settings.

  4. In the "Languages" section, click Languages and input settings.

  5. Click Custom spelling dictionary.

  6. In the open text field, type the new word that you want to add. To remove a word that you've previously added, hover over the word and click X.

  7. Click Done.

Source: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95604?hl=en Checked: October 4, 2014. Rechecked May 26, 2015.

enter image description here

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  • 1
    This process has changed in 2023 with Chrome 108+. Instead it's Settings > Languages > Customize Spell Check (at the bottom)
    – DeadChex
    Jan 9, 2023 at 19:59
  • I'm on Chrome 118 and both options appear to work.
    – mbourgon
    Oct 23, 2023 at 19:55
4

This accepted answer is incorrect or out-of-date w/r/t Google Chrome on Windows. This is where Google Chrome version "31.0.1650.63 m" actually stores the custom dictionary:

\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Custom Dictionary.txt

It's just a text file, with LF-only line terminations, and a list of words in case-sensitive alphabetical order, one per line. There's a checksum at the end, with no LF at the end of that line.

There's also a backup version, in the same folder, named "Custom Dictionary.txt.backup".

According to this https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/11414282 if the checksum fails to match in the regular version of the Custom Dictionary, and there's a backup version with a correct checksum, Chrome will silently discard the regular version and revert to the backup version.

Maybe that's be why Chrome keeps losing my custom dictionary words. :-(

So I think if you want to edit the custom dictionary file (e.g., to remove misspelled words), you'll need to delete the backup version, to prevent Chrome from reverting to it. (Note: I've not actually done this.)

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    I checked and this answer is correct. FYI, when I opened the files (in notepad++) I discovered that each line appears twice - I do not know why. The last line in my case with the checksum, looks like this: checksum_v1 = d9d0767ba5ff29b6c0f1862e88a0d646
    – yosh m
    Nov 12, 2014 at 8:50
  • This answer is now incorrect.
    – slm
    Jul 15, 2016 at 2:24
  • What is incorrect, slm? I just checked, and on my computer the dictionary is still: \Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Custom Dictionary.txt
    – Dave Burton
    Jul 16, 2016 at 5:44
  • There's two backup files in my folder, there's a .backup and a .bak. Perhaps the file name was changed between 2020/9/2 and 2020/11/21?
    – Denise Skidmore
    Sep 13, 2021 at 14:51
  • Denise, I still have only "Custom Dictionary.txt" and "Custom Dictionary.txt.backup" (dated 10/31/2021 and 10/30/2021, respectively), in my %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\ folder.
    – Dave Burton
    Nov 12, 2021 at 10:00
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The actual dictionary is baked into the browser when it is compiled, so you can't normally find or edit it without re-compiling Chrome yourself. That said, there are a bunch of dictionaries, and they're all listed here:

https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/third_party/hunspell_dictionaries/

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    I don't understand why this answer received a downvote: my dictionary file is located at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\chrome\Application\Dictionaries\en-US-8-0.bdic. The convert_dict tool would be required to create a new binary .bdic file with words removed. Custom Dictionary.txt seems to only support adding words.
    – davidmneedham
    May 6, 2019 at 20:22
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    As of May 2020, in Windows the folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data. The binary dictionary files I found were en-US-9-0.bdic and en-US-8-0.bdic
    – Leone
    May 23, 2020 at 19:47
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Location of Custom Dictionary.txt on MAC has changed yet again. This is due to the fact that Chrome now supports multiple user profiles.

It is now:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/

Profile 1 will change based on which account is used.

  • Browser: Chrome 49
  • OS: Mac OS X El Captan 10.11.2
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1
  • This worked for me: nano /Users/<username>/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Profile\ 1//Custom\ Dictionary.txt. Delete word(s) you don't want there, press ctrl+X, Y, enter. Should fix it for you.
    – Jari Thorup Palo
    Jan 16 at 13:47

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