Good words flagged as bad by spell checkers

On another thread, Sean's spell checker wrongly identified "underserved" (a term used to denote people who do not receive adequate health care or other services) as misspelled. The next day, my spell checker flagged "primatologists" (the plural form of the word for scientists who study primates). Just now, my spell checker flagged millennia (the plural form of millennium, which means a thousand years).

Obviously, all of this points up the limits of technology. What I do when my spell checker says a word is wrong but I think it's right is to go to an actual dictionary (or dictionary.com) and look it up. That's what forum users -- especially English learners -- ought to do.

But, since the words flagged incorrectly are often interesting, I thought it might be a fun way to build vocabulary for us to all list such words here.

So far, we've got:
underserved
primatologist
millennia
(definitions above)

So, the next time a spell checker flags a word you think is spelled correctly, look it up. If you're right, post the word and its definition here.

I'm wondering now where the spellchecker for this site comes from. I notice Word's doesn't flag any of the words on the list so far, and I'm pretty sure they aren't ones I've added. Also, I notice that we can actually add words to this spellchecker (or at least we moderators can, I don't know if contributors and/or regular students have that option as well). So, the three words on the existing list should no longer get flagged here.

The spell checker on my own word processing program is very well educated, as I have added so many words to it over the years.



Are you adding words to the site's spell checker or to your browser's spell checker?

Good question. I know misspelled terms typed in Google, at least in my browser, are not underlined in red, whereas misspelled terms typed in this site's textboxes are. This would lead me to believe that it is the site rather than my browser that has the spellchecker. I suppose the only way to be sure, though, would be for you to let me know whether, when you try typing "primatologist" into a message on this site, it gets underlined in red. If I'm adding them to a site dictionary, it should be recognized on your computer too. If I'm adding them to my browsers' dictionary, then it should still be flagged.

My spellchecker doesn't like wellbeing, rollerskate, firebombing, or claymation (animation with clay like Saturday Night Live's Mr. Bill). It doesn't recognize some foreign words that have moved into English like sherpa. It knows the raison in raison d'etre but not the d'etre. It knows coup, but not coup d'etat.

It also doesn't know high schooler. Well, it knows high, but not schooler.

I am sure that there are many others, but these words came to mind.

Does it know the french terms if you include the accents:

Raison d'être
Coup d'état

multiculturally is also flagged :)

One of my word programs adds in the accents automatically, but the other doesn't recognize the words regardless. They *both* automatically add the cedilla on the word facade.

Notoman, perhaps the spell checker is having trouble with Claymation because it is a product name or company name. Although like post-it notes, kleenex, and jello are now household names so I suppose that claymation might also be the household name.

By the way kleenex is flagged unless it is spelled with a K. Claymation is flagged either way.

True, claymation could be trademarked. I don't know how old of a word it is. I put it on this list because I came across it here recently. I looked it up on line just to make sure that it is indeed a word. There have been a few more words here recently that have given me pause. Let me see if I can remember any of them!

cinderblock

That's the only one I can think of! There was another pretty common one in the last couple of days, but I can't recall it now.

cinderblock
cinder block

Hmmmm . . . I suspect that since it can be spelled either way, the spellchecker prefers the non-compound form.

True. Cinderblock isn't the best example. Maybe the non-compound form is preferred. If I ever write a paper on cinderblocks, I will have to look further into that, *grin*

My spellchecker doesn't like laissez faire. Even though it is French, it has become common enough in English that I would consider it integrated.

It accepts both fiance and fiancee (technically, you are supposed to use one for an engaged man and the other for an engaged woman, but I can never recall which is which). There should be accents over the first e's, but my program doesn't add them in like it does on some other words. It also knows what a bidet is. I would imagine that laissez faire appears much more often than bidet in English writing!

Well, what does adding an "e" to a french word normally do . . . noir, noire blanc, blanche, fort, forte?

Uh, I kinda forgot about that! I only took a semester of French and I mostly slept through it. I was on some serious medications that semester and French was my first-hour class. The teacher never attempted to wake me up; she encouraged me to sleep even. I dropped the class at semester.

Oh. I spent the first seven years of school in French Immersion, so the rule was pretty well ingrained into my memory. In any event, the extra "e" turns the word from the masculine form into the feminine form, so knowing that makes it easy to figure out the gender difference between a fiancé and fiancée