Adding Custom Dictionaries to Spellcheck

[Duser]

I would like to request the addition of custom dictionaries to the spellchecker. This is different from adding words to the user dictionary.

Certain fields, like biology, have massive dictionaries with the number of unique words approaching several tens of thousands. These fields are also (understandably) very pedantic about words and their spellings. I think it would be useful to have an option in the spellchecker options to add pre-made dictionaries to the spelling list. There are many “.dic” files available online for integrating these dictionaries into Office and other word processors. Obsidian can use these files in its spell-checker too, allowing it to tap into existing dictionaries without the mess of converting files into different formats.

For reference, here is an example of a dictionary with a long list of words.

Free Medical Spell Checker for Microsoft Word, Custom Dictionary

Do note:
I have already tried to copy the words I use in my Office dictionary into .obsidian\config under the “spellcheckDictionary” variable, taking care to format it like a JSON file. Obsidian didn’t seem to like that as it reset the config file immediately when I reopened it. This doesn’t seem to be a good option.

[jellishero]

+1! I was just gonna make a request about this. I actually would just like to edit or revamp the the entire list in one fell swoop.

[OliverM]

If someone could integrate the Google Spell check api through a plugin too that would work well

Google Spell Check API - SerpApi

[DummyME]

Any progress on this one by anyone?
Or any other workarounds for autocorrect/spellchecks in British English?

[tav]

+1 to this.

I don’t want any technical dictionaries but a basic one that is more extensive than the default. Obsidian’s default dictionary doesn’t even have many common words.

[borisyurkevich]

Mac user here. Spelling should be controlled by OS to be consistent across applications. I vote to remove Obsidian custom spell checker in the Mac version and use native one. I would gladly do the development work if you allow me to help with this.

[tav]

+1 to this.

[XZF]

Obsidian should read the system custom dictionary: ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary on On MacOS; I assume other systems have something similar.

The current situation, with tabula rasa Obsidian that cannot be efficiently “taught” a professional vocabulary, is … suboptimal (drives me nuts

However, the system dictionary can be quite large (easily 100K words, and much more for e.g. the biomedical field), thus adding words to it should be done with some care; just dumping the whole file and reloading it into memory may not work well.

[Bhante-Kassapa]

Currently Google search: [ Define ‘word here’ ] is still by far the best. I don’t think the google API even works for this level of problem’d words, but yes having to copy into other things to check spelling, would be good if there was a way to enhance word errors. Currently copying and pasting into word or google search in a small side box is a slow work around.

Whats amazing about the google search, is the machine learning. The spellings can be wildly out and it still works most of the time. I am a diligent person, but spelling is one I have skiped.

I did see there was a java based api for google spelling. But to find a way to have an advanced spelling (and possibly synonyms) work offline would be amazing.

A lukewarm alternative would be working with an existing chrome plugin like https://languagetool.org

So +1 for any obsidian in program future spelling/word enhancement advancements (or for any onetime lifetime add-on).

[thwright]

Let me add my desire for including other dictionary files. I have two substational LibreOffice dictionary files that I have built over the past while and it would be great if I could include them somehow. The following workflow and command can convert them easily to something JSON can work with.

cp FILE.dic FILE.list

Remove the LibreOffice header information

for i in `cat FILE.list`; do echo \"$i\", >> FILE.json; done

The new split config files in Obsidian include dictionary words here:

  "spellcheckDictionary": [
    "word0",
    "word1"
  ]

If there were perhaps a config option to include a user-defined JSON file’s path, this would be very helpful!

[tctco]

+1 for medical spell checker.

[Nitrolysis]

the spell check is honestly awful, it definitely needs some upgrades and more support.

Pretty sure pickaxe is a word lol.

[zesty]

The default dictionary is really quite lacking. I am constantly adding words that should pass any standard spellchecker. Latest example is “fluorescently” as in “fluorescently lit”.

[Helikopter]

Can confirm, all of the default dictionaries are extremely bad.

[WhiteNoise]

The new editor now uses the same spellchecker in chrome (or the native macos spellchecker).