Excluding words from the language dictionary

Use exclude dictionaries to fine-tune Hunspell behavior for a specific language.

You can exclude words in two different ways:

• Exclude dictionary (ForExclude="true"). Words are treated as incorrect. They are underlined as misspellings. They also won’t appear in suggestions.

• Exclude suggestions dictionary (ForSuggestionsExclude="true"). Words are treated as correct (not underlined). They also won’t appear in suggestions.

Dictionary files location

Default and additional Hunspell wordlists are stored under:

• [WebSpellChecker_installation_folder]/AppServer/<ResourcesDir>/<lang_group>/

By default, ResourcesDir points to the Resources directory:

<!-- ResourcesDir parameter defines a path to the directory with dictionary resources. -->
<ResourcesDir>Resources</ResourcesDir>

<lang_group> is the top-level folder for a language group. Example: en, de, es.

All Dictionary Path="..." values are resolved relative to ResourcesDir.

Find ResourcesDir in AppServer parameters.

Add an exclude dictionary (example: English)

1. Go to [WebSpellChecker_installation_folder]/AppServer/.

2. Back up AppServerX.xml.

3. Create a new UTF-8 text file in the language resources folder. Example: Resources/en/en_US_excluded_words.txt. Put one word per line (for example, mango).

4. Open AppServerX.xml for editing.

5. Find the target language, and add the dictionary entry under the needed <Hunspell> section.

Example (exclude words):

<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_excluded_words.txt" ForExclude="true"/>

Example (exclude from suggestions only):

<Dictionary Path="en/en_excluded_suggestions.txt" ForSuggestionsExclude="true"/>

1. Save the file.

2. Restart the application

Restart AppServer to apply changes in AppServerX.xml.

To restart: stop the application, then start it again.

Use Main AppServer commands.

Full example (language tag with both dictionary types)

Show example

<Language Id="en_US" Enabled="true">
	<!-- American English (United States) -->
	<Alias>en</Alias>
	<Alias>am</Alias>
	<SupportedCheckKits>
		<CheckKit Name="lt_hs">
			<StyleGuide Enabled="true" Priority="4" Locale="en"/>
			<LanguageTool Enabled="true" Priority="0" Locale="en-US"/>
			<Hunspell Enabled="true" Priority="1" Locale="en_US">
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_medical.dic"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_legal.txt"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_added_words.txt"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_ai_added_words.txt"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_excluded_words.txt" ForExclude="true"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_excluded_suggestions.txt" ForSuggestionsExclude="true"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_excluded_offensive_language.txt" ForSuggestionsExclude="true"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_excluded_nonexistent.txt" ForSuggestionsExclude="true"/>
				<Dictionary Path="common/common_abbreviations.txt"/>
				<Dictionary Path="common/common_proper_names.txt"/>
				<Dictionary Path="common/common_excluded_words.txt" ForExclude="true"/>
				<Dictionary Path="common/common_excluded_suggestions.txt" ForSuggestionsExclude="true"/>
				<SplitSugsRules Enabled="true" Path="en/en_split_sugs_rules.csv"/>
				<NERModel Enabled="true" Path="en/ner_model_en.dat" ProbabilityThreshold="0.5"/>
				<NgramPrioritization Enabled="true" Path="en/en_ngram_model.bin"/>
			</Hunspell>
			<Dialects Enabled="true" Priority="2" Locale="en_US" Path="en/en_US_GB_CA_AU_dialect.csv"/>
		</CheckKit>
		<CheckKit Name="ai_lt_hs1" Default="true" Enabled="true" Parent="lt_hs">
			<Neural Enabled="true" Priority="3" Locale="en"/>
			<LanguageTool Enabled="true" Priority="2"/>
			<Hunspell Enabled="true" Priority="0">
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_medical.dic" AllowAISubstitution="false"/>
				<Dictionary Path="en/en_ai_added_words.txt" AllowAISubstitution="false"/>
			</Hunspell>
			<Dialects Priority="1"/>
		</CheckKit>
		<CheckKit Name="ai_lt_hs0" Enabled="false" Parent="ai_lt_hs1">
			<Hunspell>
				<DisableSuggestions>true</DisableSuggestions>
			</Hunspell>
		</CheckKit>
		<CheckKit Name="ai_lt" Enabled="true" Parent="ai_lt_hs1">
			<Hunspell Enabled="true"/>
		</CheckKit>
		<CheckKit Name="ai" Enabled="true" Parent="ai_lt_hs1">
			<LanguageTool Enabled="false"/>
			<Hunspell Enabled="false"/>
		</CheckKit>
	</SupportedCheckKits>
	<DisabledRules Path="en/en_disabled_rules.json"/>
	<DisabledRules Path="en/en_US_disabled_rules.json"/>
	<Autocomplete Enabled="true">
		<Locale>en</Locale>
	</Autocomplete>
	<SuggestionPrioritization Enabled="true">
		<ConfigFile Path="en/en_US_suggestion_rules.ini" AdvancedSearch="true"/>
		<ConfigFile Path="common/common_suggestion_rules.ini" AdvancedSearch="true"/>
	</SuggestionPrioritization>
	<Autocorrect Enabled="true">
		<Dictionary Path="en/en_US_autocorrect.csv"/>
	</Autocorrect>
</Language>

How to add words to an excluded dictionary

Case-sensitive exclusion (exclude only one exact form)

Add ! before the word. This means only that exact spelling and case will be treated as incorrect.

!example

Result:

• ❌ example → incorrect

• ✅ Example → correct

• ✅ EXAMPLE → correct

• ✅ eXamPle → correct

If you want to exclude other case versions as well, you must add them separately:

!Example

!EXAMPLE

!eXamPle

Each one will block only that exact version.

Not case-sensitive exclusion

Add the word without !. The system will automatically exclude additional case versions depending on the form you add.

What gets excluded automatically?

If you add:

example

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ example

• ❌ Example

• ❌ EXAMPLE

Mixed case (e.g., eXamPle) is NOT automatically excluded.

If you add:

Example

(starting with a capital letter)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ Example

• ❌ EXAMPLE

Lowercase example is NOT automatically excluded.

If you add:

EXAMPLE

(all caps)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ EXAMPLE

Other forms are NOT automatically excluded.

If you add:

eXamPle

(mixed case)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ eXamPle

Other forms are NOT automatically excluded.

Important – possessive forms ('s)

If you exclude a word, its possessive form is automatically excluded too.

If you add:

example

Then the following are incorrect:

• ❌ example

• ❌ example’s

If you want to exclude only the possessive form, add it separately:

example’s

Result:

• ✅ example → correct

• ❌ example’s → incorrect