How to Add New Words to Your iPhone Dictionary: 4 Ways

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Easily add your own custom terms and words to your iPhone's dictionary
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When you are typing texts, emails, or notes on your iPhone, the iPhone dictionary helps by suggesting the spelling of the words you’re trying to type in. It also corrects the words that the program believes are spelled wrong. Sometimes, you may type a word that is not misspelled, but the dictionary just doesn’t recognize it. Your iPhone will suggest replacements or even replace the word with another similar one. To avoid this, try one of the workarounds below to get your iPhone to recognize these words and stop autocorrecting you.

Quick Steps

  1. Open the Pages app.
  2. Create a new document.
  3. Type the words you want to add to your dictionary in the document.
  4. Double-tap a word.
  5. Choose Learn Spelling from the contextual menu.
Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

Using Pages to Learn Spelling

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  1. Pages is Apple's built-in word processing app for the iPhone. If you deleted the Pages app, reinstall it from the App Store for free.
  2. You can type as many words as you like.
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  3. A contextual menu will appear.
  4. The word will be added to your iPhone dictionary, and your iPhone won't correct that spelling anymore.
    • Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each word you want to add.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

Adding a Text Replacement

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  1. The Settings menu of your device will open up.
  2. This will open up the General Settings menu.
  3. In the General Settings menu, scroll down a bit and tap Keyboard to open the Keyboard Settings menu.
    • When you enter the Keyboard Settings menu, check that these are enabled: Auto Correction, Check Spelling, and "." Shortcut.
  4. If you're on an older version of iOS, it may say Add Shortcut instead.
  5. It's in the upper-right corner.
  6. You can leave the "shortcut" box empty.
  7. You can see and use your inputted word without autocorrect interfering.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

Adding Your Word(s) as a Contact

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  1. You can either open the Contacts app directly, or tap on the Phone app and go to the Contacts tab.
  2. It's in the upper-right corner.
  3. You can add multiple words to this contact, separated by a space. Your iPhone will then recognize these words and not try to autocorrect them when you type them. Your iPhone will now recognize the words you added to the contact and not try to autocorrect them when you type them.
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Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

Training Autocorrect

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  1. When you type a word autocorrect doesn't know, it will appear above your texts in the suggested words with quotes around it. Tap that option. Repeat this until your iPhone learns that you're not misspelling a word, but typing it like that on purpose.

Community Q&A

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  • Question
    How can I use a new photo that is not on my profile?
    Community Answer
    Click on the last icon with three lines then on your name located at the top of the screen. At the top of the screen click of the cover photo button, and select the picture you would like to make your cover photo.
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  • Question
    Why doesn't the iPhone have a shortcut to "Add to Dictionary" like Android? I miss it after switching.
    Snakey006550
    Top Answerer
    The iPhone doesn't have an "Add to Dictionary" option because it uses a dynamic autocorrect system that learns words as you type. If you want to stop autocorrecting a specific word immediately, create a text replacement in Settings by adding the desired word in both fields, which works similarly to Android's feature.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
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  • Question
    How can I remove a word from my phone's dictionary?
    StrangelyQuiet
    Top Answerer
    You can't remove a specific word you've added, but you can reset the dictionary through settings to remove all the words you've added.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
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