New spell checker in Google Chrome: everything you need to know

Chrome spell checker

If you are using the latest beta version of Chrome, you might have noticed a new notification at the bottom-left corner that said: “Chrome has auto-updated with bettar spell check! Try the “Ask Google for suggestions””.

This is how the search giant is letting you know that they have updated the spell checker dictionary and that your custom dictionary, now gets synced across devices when you’re signed-in to Chrome. This is in addition to the Chrome App Launcher that was unveiled not too long ago.

Also the company added new support for grammar, homonym and context-sensitive spell checking in English for the “Ask Google for suggestions” feature. If you never used it, this feature employs the same technology used by Google search, and it complements the built-in dictionary in Chrome by sending words and terms to the servers at Google returning better suggestions to help you write better.

These new updates are available in the latest beta version of the popular web browser for Windows, Linux and Chrome OS. Mac users will have to wait a little longer.

If you want to keep your browser top-notch, below I’ll describe several settings and features you may want to consider configuring:

Working with the spell checker in Chrome

Regardless how you use the browser, the spell checker in Chrome is always enabled by default. To see the new options, go to a web page with a form. Right-click a field and you’ll notice the new “Spell-checker options”.

spell-checker-options_wm

From this menu, you can see which language the browser is using. Furthermore, you can switch between different spell-check languages you may have configured earlier, and enable or disable the “Check spelling of text fields” or “Ask Google for suggestions” grammar feature.

Adding more languages

Do you need to add or remove languages within Chrome? No problem, from the same menu, we looked at earlier “Spell-checker options”, select the “Language settings” option.

Chrome Languages

From the settings page, on the left will be listed all the current languages. To include a new one, click the Add button at the bottom, choose a new language and click OK.

add language

Removing words from your custom spelling dictionary

Sometimes the web browser will mark some words as misspelled when they are grammatically correct. In these situations, you can simply, right-click the word and select “Add to dictionary”. But what happens when you realized that Google was right? Now, every time you misspell the word, you won’t see the red wiggle line underneath the word. Fortunately, Google makes super easy to correct this problem:

Custom spelling dictionary

From the Languages page, you can click the “Custom spelling dictionary” link and simply delete words, you don’t longer want the spell-checker to omit during grammar check. Moreover, you can even enable or disable the custom dictionary completely in Chrome by unchecking the “Enable spell checking option”.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].