If your iPhone is annoyingly overcorrecting the text you type, here’s how to fix the problem by adding new words to your dictionary.
Let’s say you’re texting a friend using an abbreviation or slang term. This may sound normal to you, but if your iPhone’s dictionary doesn’t recognize the word, it can replace your friendly lingo with an official word that often doesn’t have the same meaning. It’s frustrating, but luckily you can change this state of affairs by adding a new word to the iPhone dictionary; this article explains how to do it in a few simple steps.
What you will need:
- We used iPhone 13but you can use any iPhone
Short version
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down to General
- Click on the keyboard
- Select Replace Text
- Tap the + symbol at the top right
- Enter your word
- Your new word is now in your iPhone dictionary
How to add new words to the iPhone autocorrect dictionary: step by step
-
Step
1Open the Settings app.
To get started, tap on your phone’s Settings app. It’s the one with the mechanical cog as the icon.
-
Step
2Scroll down to General
In the settings menu, scroll down to General and tap on it
-
Step
3Click on the keyboard
Now click on Keyboard option
-
Step
4Select Replace Text
From the keyboard menu, click Replace Text
-
Step
5Tap the + symbol at the top right
Now tap on the + symbol which is on the top right corner of the screen
-
Step
6Enter your word
Enter a new word and save it by clicking the “Save” button at the top right
-
Step
7Your new word is now in your iPhone dictionary
Once saved, the new word is in the dictionary and will no longer be autocorrected to something else when you type it on your iPhone
Troubleshooting
The most common reason may be that you are using a slang word or a peculiar spelling that is not recognized by the dictionary and is automatically corrected to something else. This is a way around this problem.
We used an iPhone 13 running iOS 16.