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The spell check in Chrome or text-editors show the word "movie" as a spelling mistake, why?

movie shown as auto-correct error

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5  
This question isn't about English: it's about the behavior of some spell checker software. Suggest posing the question on a different SE site. – MετάEd Aug 2 '12 at 19:37
I believe it belongs on meta as a bug report. – Luke Aug 2 '12 at 19:39
4  
This is what I get for typing the very same text into the comment field I am using right now. (Chrome 21.0.1180.60 m). Which is to say, I couldn't care less, and neither should you. You are a human with a brain, spell checkers are dumb. Treat them as your slave, not your master. If a word is not misspelled, move on. – RegDwighт♦ Aug 2 '12 at 19:41
5  
@Luke: The spell checking is handled by your browser locally, not by SE servers. – RegDwighт♦ Aug 2 '12 at 19:47

closed as off topic by KitFox♦, MετάEd, Hugo, simchona♦, tchrist Aug 2 '12 at 20:28

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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

The word "movie" is American English. If the spell checker is not set to American English, that would be the reason why. This relates to the discussion here: "Movies" vs. "Cinema" vs. "Theater" -- what's the difference?

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up vote 2 down vote

On your computer, Chrome is very likely configured to use British English (or a variant thereof) which prefers film over movie. It might be possible to add the word to the spell-checker's local dictionary, if you so desire, which should make the squiggle go away.

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up vote 1 down vote

The Oxford English Dictionary's website's definition of the word 'Movie' states that it's is "chiefly North American", so spell checkers based on it could interpret it as being slang in British English (being an Americanism) and treat it like a spelling mistake. Meanwhile, spell checkers set to US English wouldn't recognise it as such, and hence it appears as being a 'proper' word.

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