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Words you should consider adding to the spellchecker's exclusion list

Many correctly spelled words that are being used incorrectly won't be found by a spellcheck. There are a few common reasons for this:

In each case, creating an exclusion list can force your spellchecker to stop at these words and ask you to check them once more, just to be sure. In Microsoft Word, this list is referred to as an "exclusion list". (See Chapter 10 of Effective Onscreen Editing for details on creating and using exclusion dictionaries.)

The table of word pairs that follows was originally compiled by Carolyn Haley and members of the copyediting-l discussion group, but I've modified and updated it as new words were suggested by my work and my colleagues. Additional words were suggested by Matt Stevens. The list is in alphabetical order, with the word that comes first in the left column. After the table, I've provided a single-column list of the words that you can copy and paste into your word processor to create the exclusion list. (Details on how to do this will vary among word processors. Consult the online help for details.)

If you have any words or word pairs you'd like to add to the list, please send them to me via my Contact page.

Word pairs

adaption adaptation
adviser advisor
affect effect
ameba amoeba
as ass
asses

asset
assess assets
assume

subsume
ate eat
barely

barley
bride bridge
canceled

cancelled
catalog catalogue
calvary

cavalry
compiled complied
complement compliment
county

country
curser cursor
dairy diary
descendant descendent
dialog dialogue
drier dryer
economic economical
eg e.g.,
flair flare
foreword forward
form from
funguses fungi
gorilla guerrilla
gray grey
hair hare
home

hone
ie i.e.,
important impotent
input inputted
intension intention
irregardless regardless
it's its
lager larger
led

lead
loose lose
manage mange
manager manger
managers mangers
marital martial
miniscule

minuscule
necessarily necessary
patent patient
penal penile
perform preform
phonology phenology
phonological phenological
poses posses
posses

possess
predominantly predominately
principal principle
perspective prospective
pubic public
quadrate quadrat
quadrates quadrats
rabbi rabbit
reign rein
sail sale
sale sell
sequestrate sequester
stationary stationery
straight strait
supercede

supersede
that which
their there
than then
toward

towards
trail trial
under way underway
useable usable
valance valence
were where

List you can copy into your software

adviser

advisor

affect

ameba

amoeba

as

ass

asses

assess

asset

assets

assume

ate

barely

barley

bride

bridge

calvary

canceled

cancelled

catalog

catalogue

cavalry

compiled

complement

complied

compliment

country

county

curser

cursor

dairy

descendant

descendent

dialog

dialogue

diary

drier

dryer

eat

economic

economical

effect

flair

flare

foreword

form

forward

from

gorilla

gray

grey

guerrilla

hair

hare

home

hone

important

impotent

input

inputted

intension

intention

it's

its

lead

led

loose

lose

manage

manager

managers

mange

manger

mangers

marital

martial

miniscule

minuscule

necessarily

necessary

patent

patient

penal

penile

perform

perspective

poses

posses

possess

predominantly

predominately

preform

principal

principle

prospective

pubic

public

rabbi

rabbit

reign

rein

sail

sale

sell

stationary

stationery

straight

strait

subsume

supercede

supersede

than

that

their

then

there

toward

towards

trail

trial

under way

underway

valance

valence

were

where

which


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