It's spelled wrong... but it's in the dictionary!

[Mr Skills]

OSX's spellcheck always seems a bit overzealous, and I've noticed quite a few words that it claims are spelled wrong, even though they are in Dictionary.app

For example:
alright
ponce
pazazz
cliched
binned
gigging

Those are all underlined in red as I type this, but they are all in the dictionary application! Anyone got more examples?

 

[iShater]

Are you using Fire Fox?

 

[GGJstudios]

Only pazazz is spelled wrong, and Dictionary just gave you the closest thing it could find. All the other words are spelled correctly. Spelled wrong and common usage are two factors. The spellcheck may only look for more common words, not everything in the dictionary.

By the way, I'd love to know how you ran across those words! "I know it sounds a bit cliched, but as I was gigging one night, feeling alright, I binned a ponce who showed too much pazazz."

 

[portent]

The Oxford Dictionary contains a number of variant or informal spellings which the spell checker does not accept. This is usually for the best, since the purpose of a spell checker is to make your writing look good in a formal situation, whereas a dictionary exists to provide definitions for as much of the language as possible.

In a few cases, your language settings (US vs. UK) can also make a difference.

 

[Mr Skills]

Are you using Fire Fox?

Nope. Standard system-wide spell-check.

Only pazazz is spelled wrong, and Dictionary just gave you the closest thing it could find.

Pazazz is spelled right according to my dictionary app!

All the other words are spelled correctly. Spelled wrong and common usage are two factors. The spellcheck may only look for more common words, not everything in the dictionary.

The Oxford Dictionary contains a number of variant or informal spellings which the spell checker does not accept. This is usually for the best, since the purpose of a spell checker is to make your writing look good in a formal situation, whereas a dictionary exists to provide definitions for as much of the language as possible.

Some of these are perfectly common words. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of a single synonym for "binned" (maybe "disposed of" but it's not exactly the same meaning) so not only is it a common word, it's the *most* common word for its meaning.

By the way, I'd love to know how you ran across those words! "I know it sounds a bit cliched, but as I was gigging one night, feeling alright, I binned a ponce who showed too much pazazz."

It wasn't all at once! ... I've been keeping a sticky open and writing them down whenever I come across them. It is an incredibly common occurrance. I had about 20 more, and much more common words, but I accidentally closed the sticky

In a few cases, your language settings (US vs. UK) can also make a difference.

That could certainly explain "alright" which I suspect may be more common in the UK. But not "binned" or "clichéd" (which it flags as a spelling error with or without the accent).

 

[MacDawg]

Some of these are perfectly common words. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of a single synonym for "binned" (maybe "disposed of" but it's not exactly the same meaning) so not only is it a common word, it's the *most* common word for its meaning.

And yet incredibly I have never heard or seen the word in my life, much less used it.

"binned" as in "having put something in a bin"? (from your 'disposed of' analogy)

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Mr Skills]

And yet incredibly I have never heard or seen the word in my life, much less used it.

"binned" as in "having put something in a bin"? (from your 'disposed of' analogy)

Really? I cannot exaggerate how much of an ordinary word this is in the UK... maybe it's just one of those transatlantic language differences!

Yes it is the past tense of puttting something in a bin - literally or figuratively. Examples:
- "The food was out of date so I binned it"
- "They were ready to release a G5 Powerbook but at the last minute the idea was binned"

It is in the OSX dictionary application as the primary verb meaning of this word.


If nobody knows these words in America, then I'm beginning to think this might be a localisation issue. Maybe they've changed the obvious spelling differences (color/colour) but failed to add different words that are more common in British English.

 

[ihabime]

Interesting, when i type those words in textedit the only one that gets redlined is pazazz. My system is set to US English localization.

 

[Mr Skills]

I've done a bit more research, and this looks like a localisation issue.

I looked up Wikipedia's list of words that are common in the UK but not so well known in the US, and came up with loads more examples that the spellchecker thinks are wrong. All of these words are in common, everyday use in the UK, and are correctly defined in the dictionary application:
blimey
b***ocks
paracetamol
slowcoach
tosspot
verruca
wally

Here are some more words that, although not in dictionary.app (because they are uniquely British or brand names), should be in the spellchecker for British English:
answerphone/ansafone
autocue
berk
blag
dosh
faff
jobsworth
scrumping
sellotape
spod
squidgy
wally

 

[Mr Skills]

Interesting, when i type those words in textedit the only one that gets redlined is pazazz. My system is set to US English localization.

That's even more strange - it's like they've removed words from the spellchecker's British word list, rather than just not adding them.

I can confirm this on multiple Macs, so it's not just my spellchecker that's weird.

[oops. There's another one. "Spellchecker" is fine; "Spellchecker's" is spelled wrong.]

 

[ihabime]

from the second list, blimey bollocks paracetamol slowcoach tosspot and wally come up as spelled correctly.

I verified your test by changing the language setting in the spelling and grammar window to British and it does show them all as spelled wrong. The Australian and Canadian spellchecks show the same results as British.

You'd think they'd at least get blimey right

 

[Mr Skills]

I sent the following to Apple feedback:

A huge number of very common words are missing from the British spell checker on OSX, so they are underlined in red as if they are spelled wrong. This has been verified on multiple computers. All of these are in common use, many are in the Dictionary application, and most do not have this problem when language is set to American English (even though some are quintessentially British!). Examples:

alright
ponce
pazazz
cliched
binned
gigging
blimey
bollocks
paracetamol
slowcoach
tosspot
verruca
wally
autocue
berk
blag
dosh
faff
jobsworth
scrumping
sellotape
spod
squidgy
wally


... but there are many, many more. Also, it will regularly flag words as spelled wrong when an apostrophe-s is added to the end. So "The SPELLCHECKER is not working" is fine, but "the SPELLCHECKER'S not working" is underlined in red. Again, seems to be a unique issue with language set to British English (possibly Australian etc too).