How to reset your iPhone or iPad keyboard dictionary

By Allyson Kazmucha
last updated

Frustrated that your iPhone auto-correct dictionary has "learned" an incorrect word and curious how to reset it? Worried you might have an autocorrect fail when sending an iMessage or regular SMS to an important contact? Apple doesn't give you very many options when it comes to editing dictionary entries but if your iPhone has learned to incessantly auto-correct something that isn't right, there's an easy way to reset the dictionary in order to get rid of the problem.

How to reset the keyboard dictionary on iPhone and iPad

  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General.
  3. Tap on Reset, you'll have to scroll all the way to the bottom.
  4. Tap on Reset Keyboard Dictionary.
  5. Type in your password when prompted. You'll only get this step if you have a password enabled.
  6. Tap on Reset Dictionary in the popup menu to confirm you'd like to reset the keyboard dictionary.

How to reset your iPhone or iPad keyboard dictionary

How to reset your iPhone or iPad keyboard dictionary

That's it. The keyboard dictionary on your iPhone or iPad should now be reset to default. Any funny spelling mistakes it was making should now be remedied.

Note: Originally published, December 2010. Updated, December 2014.

Allyson Kazmucha
Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.

26 Comments
  • Nice :)
  • Wow...how long has that been there??!?!? I've been needing this for so long... lol
  • a while back i had an issue when i was spelling "as" autocorrect was suggesting "A's" what the hell??
  • That's funny because the reason I am here viewing this is my problem with the word AS also, same thing. I know how it happened to me though. I post quite a bit on the Detroit Tigers message board and when they played the A's in the playoffs in 2012 I used it all the time in my posts. They need to make an easy fix for this problem. Like type the word 3 straight times and you cancel the auto correct 3 times. This should be a fixed problem on the next generation of IPads and iPhones. Shouldn't have to reset my whole dictionary. Of course I use the word as a lot so I will have to reset my dictionary.
  • A great service guys!
    Much needed by the masses.
    Many thanks.
    Pete.
  • If it's only one word you're concerned about then you can also open notepad and type that one word a few times (all the while hitting the "X" on the incorrect entry) until auto-correct learns it the correct way...tedious I know, but sometimes a necessary evil if you have auto-correct trained just the way you want on everything else.
  • i love the iphone , really do.
    however the autocorrect feature / dictionary on these phones are the most god awful pieces of crap to ever grace the phone.
    really needs to be fixed.
  • Quick tip on autocorrect:
    If you have a word that is being incorrectly corrected, do the following.
    Open Notes
    Type the word in question.
    If it is trying to correct it after the word is completely typed, click the autocorrect box to cancel it.
    Press space bar and type again. If it is still trying to correct, click the autocorrect box to cancel and press space.
    Keep doing this until it learns not to correct.
  • I tried it and it worked. I read another comment from the OP that said it usually won't keep working, we will see. I had tried this before but must not have did it enough times to work.
  • Yesssss, I can type "we'll" again without it wanting to say "Welll". Great tip that I completely forgot about. And I agree with @Dan. They should make text prediction like Android. I much prefer the prediction on my N1 to my iPhone...more than just one option when typing words!
  • I wish there was an easy way like this to remove the typed email addresses that are "remembered". I can't stand the old and incorrect email addresses that are shown as options when I start typing one.
  • YES YES, the incorrect email addresses, biggest pain in my Ipad
  • how did you change the sms theme?
  • anyone else notice the jailbroken iphone uses lol awesome
  • @Danny - I'm jailbroken
    @people saying to use notes - this has never worked for me permanently. it will still eventually correct back to the other word. it's kind of a cr@pshoot when you use notes. it may work, it may not. in my experience, it's not a very good way of fixing the dictionary, and it's a pain
  • Thanks! Sometimes when I try to type 'ME' it will auto-correct to 'MR'.
  • @Kie - if you touch the "e" key on the right side it'll want to autocorrect the word to mr. However, if you hit the "e" key on the left side it won't autocorrect.
  • It resets all those good things also that it has learnt correct
  • @Medicmaestro - what do you mean the e on the right or left?
  • @Copeling - The right side or left side of the key, since you don't always hit it directly in the center.
  • Hi, this will not work on my iPhone 3GS o/s 5.0.1
  • Thank you so much! My iPhone had accidentally started replacing the with tge... It was super annoying!!!
  • If using the reset option doesn't seem to work for you, try pressing reset keyboard dictionary then without touching anything else, backup and restore your iPhone. That was the only way I could get around it not working perminatly
  • I did the keyboard reset and it didn't work when I type in the name sam it brings up wassam please help
  • Resetting dictionary doesn't work!
  • I have reset the dictionary three times. It does not get rid of the 'bad' words! Any other suggestions?