a program that checks the spelling of every word in a document by looking up each word in its dictionary. Many word processors do this as the words are typed. If the word does not appear in the dictionary, the user is alerted to a possible misspelling, and possible corrections are often suggested. Sometimes the correction will be made automatically, but you need to double-check to make sure that the resulting word is correct.
A spell checker will not recognize unusual proper names or specialized terms, but it will often allow you to create your own personal dictionary of specialized words you often use. (Be sure not to put misspelled words into it!) Spell checkers are valuable aids to proofreading, but they cannot catch the substitution of one correctly spelled word for another (such as form for from or to for too). Thus they do not guarantee that a document is free of spelling errors.
