Office Settings & Configuration

How to Make Word Spell-Check Capitalized Misspelled Words

WPS Editor Sep 28, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants Microsoft Word to flag capitalized misspelled words as errors, just as it does for their lowercase counterparts.

How to Force Microsoft Word to Spell-Check Capitalized Misspelled Words

Product: Microsoft Word
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Proofreading and spell-checking a document where capitalized typos are being incorrectly skipped or treated as valid words.
Observed behavior: Word's spell-checker flags lowercase misspellings but treats the capitalized version of the same misspelled word (e.g., 'Havan' vs 'havan') as valid.

Before you start

Ensure that the 'Ignore words in UPPERCASE' setting is unchecked in your Word Options, as this can sometimes interfere with how capitalized words are processed by the proofing tools.

Solution 1Recommended

Add the Capitalized Misspelled Words to the Exclusion Dictionary

By adding the specific capitalized misspelled word to Word's exclusion dictionary, you force the Editor to flag it as an error in all future documents.

Microsoft Word may include certain capitalized forms in its built-in dictionary, treating them as valid proper nouns. Since there is no setting to ignore capitalization for these specific dictionary entries, manually updating the exclusion dictionary is the most effective workaround.

Locate the UProof Folder

Open File Explorer and navigate to your user profile's Microsoft UProof folder, typically located at %appdata%\Microsoft\UProof.

Open the Exclusion Dictionary File

Find the exclusion dictionary file for your language, such as ExcludeDictionaryEN0409.lex for US English, and right-click it to open with a text editor like Notepad.

Add the Misspelled Words

Type the capitalized misspelled word (e.g., 'Havan' or 'Haror') on a new line. Ensure each word you want to flag is placed on its own separate line.

Save and Restart

Save the text file and close Notepad. Restart Microsoft Word to apply the new rules to your spell-checker.

Add the Capitalized Misspelled Words to the Exclusion Dictionary

Exclusion Applied: Word will now correctly flag the capitalized words specified in the file with a red squiggly line, allowing you to catch errors more effectively.

Solution 2

Review and Edit Custom Dictionaries

If the capitalized misspelling affects many common words, it may have been accidentally added to your personal custom dictionary and needs to be removed.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Word ignore capitalized misspelled words?

Word's built-in dictionary often contains the capitalized forms of certain words, recognizing them as proper nouns or specific geographic locations (like 'Havan'), even if the lowercase version is flagged as a typo.

Is there a setting in Word to turn off proper noun capitalization skipping?

No, Microsoft Word does not have a specific toggle to ignore the first capitalized character of a word during spell-checking if that word natively exists in its dictionary. You must use an exclusion dictionary to explicitly flag them.

Will the exclusion dictionary affect all Office applications?

Yes, modifying the exclusion dictionary in the UProof folder generally affects the spell-checker across all Microsoft Office programs, including Outlook and PowerPoint, since they share the same proofing tools.

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