Turning Off the Check for Repeated Words

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 18, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Marianne types Inspector General interviews and very often people stammer, repeating the same word a few times. This causes the 'delete repeated word' window to pop up. Marianne tried turning off spell checking to fix the problem, but that obviously caused other problems. She wonders if there is a way to turn off checking for repeated words without turning off spell check.

The answer isn't to turn off spell checking altogether, but instead to modify how spell check does its work. Follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Proofing at the left side of the screen. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.

Clear the Flag Repeated Words check box.
Click OK.

Not being an interview typist (particularly for the Inspector General) myself, there is another way that may be acceptable: Just change how you type the duplicate words. For instance, instead of typing "yes yes" (which would cause the duplicate-word flag to appear on the second "yes"), you could type "yes, yes" or "yes; yes" or place some other sort of punctuation or dash between the repeated words. This causes Word to not treat them as repeats; that only occurs if you repeat the words with no intervening punctuation.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10121) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Pulling Formulas from a Worksheet

The formulas in your worksheet can be displayed (instead of formula results) by a simple configuration change. You can ...

Discover More

Adjusting the Angle of Axis Labels

When creating a chart, your axis labels may be wider than desired. One way to deal with them is to change the angle at ...

Discover More

Hyperlinks in Comments

Need to add a hyperlink to a comment or note? It's easy to do by following the steps outlined in this tip.

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Fast Spelling Corrections

Want to correct the spelling of a word that Word thinks is improperly spelled? A quick way to do it is to right-click the ...

Discover More

Expanding a Custom Dictionary

Does Word tell you that your custom dictionary is full? It might not actually be full, but even if it is, you can add ...

Discover More

Compiling Misspelled Words from Documents

Word keeps track of the words that may be misspelled in a document. If you are working with a lot of documents, you may ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is four less than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.