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 an exclamation mark (!) 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, add them separately:

!Example

!EXAMPLE

!eXamPle

Each one will block only that exact version.

Not case-sensitive exclusion

Add the word without an exclamation mark (!). 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) isn't automatically excluded.

If you add:

Example

(starting with a capital letter)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ Example

• ❌ EXAMPLE

Lowercase example isn't automatically excluded.

If you add:

EXAMPLE

(all caps)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ EXAMPLE

Other forms aren't automatically excluded.

If you add:

eXamPle

(mixed case)

Automatically treated as incorrect:

• ❌ eXamPle

Other forms aren't 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