The Conflicting Dictionaries
Historically, Google Chrome utilized its own built-in spell checking engine (Hunspell) to underline typos with a red squiggly line. However, in an effort to provide a more unified experience across the operating system, Chrome introduced an experimental flag that allows the browser to ditch its internal dictionary and instead rely entirely on the native Windows OS spell checker. When enabled, Chrome outsources the spell-checking task to Windows.
While this sounds efficient, it often leads to incredibly frustrating inconsistencies. The Windows spell checker might have a different custom dictionary than the one you’ve painstakingly built up in Chrome over the years. Furthermore, some users report that the Windows spell checker is noticeably slower or less accurate with specific technical jargon compared to Chrome’s native engine. If you find that Chrome is suddenly failing to recognize words you know you added to your dictionary, or if you prefer the classic Hunspell engine, you should disable the integration with the Windows OS spell checker.
How to Turn Off the Windows Spell Checker in Chrome
You can force Chrome to use its own internal spell checking engine via the experimental flags menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click inside the main address bar at the top of the browser.
- Type
chrome://flagsand press Enter. - A page titled “Experiments” will load.
- In the search bar at the top, type Use the Windows OS spell checker.
- The specific flag will appear highlighted in yellow. Next to it is a dropdown menu.
- Change the dropdown menu setting from “Default” or “Enabled” to Disabled.
- Click the blue Relaunch button at the bottom of the screen.
Upon restarting, Chrome will sever its connection to the Windows spelling API. It will revert to using its own internal dictionary, ensuring that your custom words are recognized and that spell checking behaves exactly as it did in older versions of the browser.