Understanding Thesaurus and Spelling Checker Behavior in Office 

Questions about the thesaurus and spelling checker used in Microsoft Office have arisen as a result of users experiencing unintended results. These unintended and sometimes inappropriate results are not caused by bugs in the software, nor are they caused by tricks played on users by software developers. To better understand that these results are unintended, it is helpful to learn how the thesaurus and spelling checker work.

The thesaurus and spelling checker both use an algorithm that automatically calculates the most probable suggested word or phrase. If the tool doesn't recognize what you have typed, it then presents you with an alphabetical list of words (and phrases in the thesaurus), and highlights the one that is closest (as calculated by the algorithm) to what you have typed. For instance, if you type "Europ," omitting the final "e" by mistake, the spelling checker or thesaurus will indicate that it cannot find the word, but it will suggest the word "Europe" in order to help you find the correct word quickly.

It is possible to derive an unintended but offensive meaning by combining the search term and the word or phrase that happens to be highlighted in the alphabetical list. However, the process used to generate such a result is completely coincidental.

More information