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LexisMed

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[LexisMed is the new name of the old MeDic spell check dictionary, and this is its new home. The content of this page last updated November 25, 2008 @ 08.51am EST]

LexisMed is a free medical spell check dictionary for Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, and anything else that uses plain text files to store user-created dictionaries.

If it's useful to you or someone you know, please bookmark it, Stumble it, or, better yet, link to the LexisMed main page from your own site. Feel free to send it to friends. It's been free for the last five years, and will continue to be free forever.

LexisMed is on its second full release with 66,239 words. This is nowhere near a comprehensive word list, but it's much closer to that goal than the first release. A lot more of the low-hanging fruit has been plucked, which means that you should rarely, if ever, encounter one of those squiggly red underlines. If you have word additions or suggestions, please leave a comment on this page. The only way LexisMed is going to grow and become even more useful is if I get help from other people. Stedman's has 500,000 words or so, but it also costs an arm and a leg.

My goal for the third release of LexisMed is 100,000 words.

I have put in quite a bit of effort to make sure that things that should be capitalized — people's names, brand-name drugs, etc. — are, so that they will be flagged as incorrect if they are not capitalized properly in your document. There are no duplicate entries that I am aware of; if you find any, please let me know.

If you're using Microsoft Office 2007/2008 or later, you'll want the Unicode version. For earlier versions of Office, you'll need the non-Unicode version. (Don't worry, the word lists are absolutely identical even though the file sizes are a bit different.)

Installation instructions:

A note on accuracy:

I have done my best to make sure that all words are spelled correctly, opting to omit a word if I wasn't completely certain that it was right. I find it better to be incomplete than wrong. Nonetheless, there may be some mistakes. If you find any, please let me know. I'm happy to report that in the last 5 years, the only errors that have been reported are problems with capitalization.

Other English localizations

Russell Butler's Australian localization: local mirror | JustLocal | OpenOffice 3.0 extension. He writes:

I have attached a copy of the word list, largely derived from yours, with a few modifications. I have tried to limit it to acceptable Australian spellings, so that if used only "valid" words are offered as substitutes. I know that some usages are uncertain, and I will attempt to see if I can get some help in checking them, notably sulfur vs sulphur in compound words, levo- vs laevo etc.

I think there are a few additional words. I have not checked all the trade names for what is available here. I have taken out (mostly) "part words" as the OpenOffice.org dictionary doesn't know how to use these. It deals only with "whole" words, except that it can use a suffix file, but I am not up to editing that. It also has problems with hyphenated words, so I have split some of them, though I have left quite a few, in the hope that this may improve with later versions.

LexisMed is licensed under a CreativeCommons license. Some rights reserved.

CreativeCommons license

Written by Rian

August 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pm

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  1. Medical dictionary…

    Great little find.  For use in applications that allow you to use a custom dictionary, such as MS Word etc.
     
    http://rianjs.net/medic/
     
    Please visit and download,……

    UCL Medical student Blog

    22 Jan 06 at 9:43 am

  2. It is nice to see good quality information available. Keep it up . Many thanks.

    Spelling

    3 Mar 06 at 3:16 pm

  3. We have a list of medical terms at:
    http://www.simulconsult.com/support/tablet/index.html

    The list of terms was prepared for users of Tablet PCs who are using our medical diagnostic software, but it is fine to add them to MeDic. The terms focus mainly on neurological diseases, but since they comprise about 25% of all diseases this may be helpful to people in many medical areas.

    There are many proper names included because many syndromes are named after people.

    Michael Segal

    22 Oct 06 at 9:45 am

  4. Sure, sign me up for the updates. Thanks for the work.

    Evan

    23 Jan 07 at 1:11 pm

  5. Oops, sorry. Could you remove these replies? I just wanted to sign up. Guess I need to read the directions better :)

    Evan

    23 Jan 07 at 1:13 pm

  6. You're welcome. :)

    I never added any functionality to submit words to the dictionary — completely forgot about it, in fact…

    in the meantime, you can email me submissions — the emails in the upper right corner…

    Rian

    2 May 07 at 10:35 am

  7. Hi Rian

    I left a personal note a couple of days ago about possibly using your list of words as a contribution to an OpenOffice.org Medical dictionary.

    A major question was the matter of licensing.

    Have you had any thoughts about this yet?

    Russell Butler

    9 May 07 at 3:02 am

  8. tanks

    Mortaza

    23 Jun 07 at 9:53 pm

  9. Thanks for the MeDic wordlist. It's very useful.

    I find that OpenOffice OOo specialty user dictionary has a 2000 word limit. How do we deal with that? I've looked in OOo site and found others complaining of this 2000 word limit, but no solution.

    Daniel

    26 Jun 07 at 5:14 pm

  10. There is another free medical dictionary at:

    http://www.e-medtools.com/openmedspel.html

    There are versions for openoffice and thunderbird. It says it is based on their $15 purchase version for MS Word that supposedly contains all FDA drug and device approvals up to release date (June 2007) for a total of approximately 50,000 terms. It is released under GPL.

    ..any chance of a collaborative effort to create a more complete dictionary for users of both?

    Travis N

    8 Jul 07 at 11:09 am

  11. basically, i dunno how but my all.dic is now 11megs large with over 400k words…
    i think it may have absorbed words off stedmans or something like that…anwyays, would u like me to send it to ya it mite be of some use ;)
    thanks for the amazing dictionary btw, it is incredibly useful

    devesh

    30 Oct 07 at 9:16 am

  12. Hi again Rian

    I just came back and had another look at your list, and it looks very useful. I think I explained that I had developed a (much more limited) Australian medical word list. This is available at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oooau/#Australian_Medical_Dictionary
    in case there is anything you may find usable. Unfortunately that is a "munched" version, but I can send a "raw" text version if you wish.

    I am just a little concerned about your Creative Commons Licence "not for commercial use." As I think I mentioned earlier, many people like me use their word processor for "commercial" purposes, in the sense of paid work. Some may feel that was not allowed by your licence. I think you probably mean that no one should take your list and sell it, and I am quite happy with that.

    If I were to "translate" your list into Australian usage, and give you credit as an important source, would that be OK with you?

    Russell Butler

    18 Mar 08 at 6:08 pm

  13. Russell,

    I will take a look at your words and see about adding them to MeDic.

    As for commercial purposes, that's more that I don't want people profiting directly from my work. E.g.: copying the words and selling them as their own payware dictionary product. If you use the dictionary in a commercial environment, that's cool with me. :)

    Spread the word. I'd love to see more people use it (and possibly add words, too).

    Rian

    22 Mar 08 at 8:47 am

  14. Wonderful,
    Great initiative,
    Keep up the good work!!!
    (if you will, you can leave a donation link or address. I understand you are not putting this up for money, but that is one way of saying thanks by us users.
    HJ

    HJ

    24 Mar 08 at 2:11 pm

  15. Thanks, Rian, I thought that would be your response.

    I'm working through your list removing the words I already have, unfortunately I haven't developed a method of eliminating duplicates automatically.

    I see a lot of words using the UK/Australian spellings which I have left in, and deleted (most ? some? of) the US versions.

    Hopefully over the next week or so I'll merge it with my collection and let you have it. I'll send with it just my own word list separately so you can play with that.

    Regards

    Russell

    Russell Butler

    26 Mar 08 at 2:33 am

  16. Wonderful,
    Great initiative,
    Keep up the good work!!!
    (if you will, you can leave a donation link or address. I understand you are not putting this up for money, but that is one way of saying thanks by us users.
    HJ

    HJ, that had not occurred to me. I will look into doing so after I get my new theme up and running. :)

    Rian

    5 Apr 08 at 12:11 pm

  17. did u manage to use that massive list i sent you in october/november 07. i ended up pulling it out of the custom dic list as it was too large for word to process… each time i added a new word it would lock up for 2secs!
    ps, the release format you have given does not i think work with word 07, i vaguely remember having to do something to the list to get it to work.

    thanks again

    devesh

    15 Apr 08 at 4:20 pm

  18. Hey nice work dude.
    find it very useful.
    The dictionary has to be opened by notepad ans saved in a unicode format for it to work with Word 2007 guys.
    Keep it up.

    Gokul

    10 Jul 08 at 7:14 am

  19. Thanks for the site. I am doing Medical Transcription and I am sure this will help a lot.
    Sometimes you become braindead when typing reports.

    Renee

    8 Sep 08 at 12:44 pm

  20. I have OpenOffice on my U3 Cruzer Scandisk. Is it still possible to install MeDic on my computer and open it up with the OpenOffice on the Scan Disk with U3?

    westernLil

    9 Sep 08 at 2:22 pm

  21. Thanks so much for the site, I'm a Med student, and have worn my "right click" out on my laptop with adding words. I have 3 med dictionaries and none have a disc with any type of list to add to word! Thanks a ton! I will try to weed through my custom.dic and send it your way to add to the list.

    Rob

    22 Nov 08 at 8:05 pm

  22. I have uploaded a newer version of MeDic with Unicode encoding for the newer versions of Office (2007 and 2008).

    Rian

    25 Nov 08 at 8:56 am

  23. THANK YOU!!!

    I have Stedmans, but it doesn't play nicely with my computer. Doesn't install well, and sometimes refuses to work. Plus I'd rather use OpenOffice.

    This solves many problems for me.

    Patrick

    10 Dec 08 at 9:45 am

  24. Just wanted to say thank you. What an awesome project and thanks for sharing. This helps so much.

    Jeff

    20 Dec 08 at 11:57 pm

  25. Hey… This is awesome – just what I've been looking for. Thanks for making it. It's so easy to install and works perfectly!!

    Vishal

    25 Dec 08 at 11:47 pm

  26. wonderful work. Nobody needs 500,000 words! My only request. Is it possible to convert it to mac OS X speller so it can be used on all other software of the mac as well i.e. pages, keynote etc. these programs use the OS X dictionaries and custom spellers. At the moment only mac office can use it.

    humayun

    13 Jan 09 at 5:11 pm

  27. Looks to me like you have the word rhonchus but not the plural rhonchi.

    Also, pansystolic as in a pansystolic murmur.

    I will let you know if I find more.

    Craig

    14 Jan 09 at 1:23 pm

  28. Thanks, I will add those in.

    Rian

    14 Jan 09 at 3:23 pm

  29. Also, I forgot to say thanks. Amazing tool you gave me for free.

    Craig

    14 Jan 09 at 6:04 pm

  30. My word suggestions:

    tachypneic, bradypneic, nonrebreather, pulseless

    Thank you so much for this dictionary; it is a huge help.

    Tiffany

    21 Jan 09 at 10:49 pm

  31. You are also missing aeruginosa, as in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

    Thanks again

    Craig

    30 Jan 09 at 2:22 pm

  32. You have just saved 86 PA students from wasting hours with double checking our spelling in google before handing in assignments. This also fits the bill as we are not yet raking it in. Thanks!!!

    Jonathan

    18 Feb 09 at 9:29 am

  33. Glad to be of help. :)

    Rian

    18 Feb 09 at 10:27 am

  34. sitagliptin

    craig

    26 Feb 09 at 2:35 am

  35. rifaximin / xifaxan

    craig

    17 Mar 09 at 6:51 pm

  36. lubiprostone / Amitiza

    craig

    17 Mar 09 at 6:55 pm

  37. This has been a life saver! My computer crashed and I had three years worth of medical terminology and medications on there! Thanks so much! :)

    Christy

    16 Apr 09 at 7:47 am

  38. I must say I agree with you, even though not totally. We are putting together a non-profit website that will include links to useful websites such as yours. It is still under development, if you are interested please take a look http://usmle-usmle.org

    Ed Hirschprung

    18 Apr 09 at 10:21 am

  39. Thanks so much for this! I just stumbled across this. I knew someone, somewhere, had to of thought of doing something like this! I'm just starting out in medical transcription and this is a life saver! Thank you again!

    Katie Jayne

    22 Apr 09 at 3:43 pm

  40. This product is very useful. Thanks.

    One suggestion: The utility is very much compromised by the fact you do not list plurals for many words. This still means Word recognises them as potential errors, and they need to be manually checked…

    eg: Biguanides, Craniopharyngiomas, etc etc etc

    Also: link to Russel Butler's Australian version not working.

    Good luck!

    D

    12 May 09 at 12:12 am

  41. Thank you kindly :)

    DW

    18 May 09 at 4:57 am

  42. Thank you so much! I am a spelling fanatic so it was really annoying to me that Word underlined medical terms as spelling mistakes. This dictionary worked like a charm and I am forever grateful! Great job!

    Katie

    12 Jun 09 at 11:00 am

  43. Thanks, hero of all medical geeks!
    Will endeavor to pass on any extra words to you :-)

    Heres a couple:
    osteoblasts – you've got 'osteoblast' only
    degranulated – as in degranulated platelets

    Sarah

    8 Aug 09 at 7:46 pm

  44. thienopyridine
    thienopyridines

    Ginger

    16 Sep 09 at 12:04 pm

  45. Absolutely loved this, saved me constantly trying to update the silly dictionary that comes with word!
    Does anyone know if there's a way to use this dictionary in powerpoint's spellchecking? I can't find a way to add a custom dictionary in that program, but as I do presentations often enough, it'd be nice to not have to start adding words to that dictionary…

    Thanks,
    Anne

    Anne E

    22 Sep 09 at 9:14 am

  46. Anne,

    This link from Microsoft may help.

    Rian

    22 Sep 09 at 9:47 am

  47. Unfortunately that seems to be geared for the 2007 version…can't seem to make that work in the 2003 version (there isn't a proof tab in the options on 2003). Any other thoughts?

    Anne E

    22 Sep 09 at 10:03 am

  48. Apparently 2003 doesn't support custom dictionaries the way Word does. You may be able to manually open the PowerPoint main dictionary and paste them there, but if I recall correctly, the built-in dictionary isn't stored in plain text format like custom dictionaries. I don't use Office 2003 anymore, so I can't be sure…

    Rian

    22 Sep 09 at 10:16 am

  49. Appreciate your help though…I'm just stuck with what my workplace has right now…*sigh* they'll eventually upgrade.
    In the mean time, I'm really thankful that word 2003 does accept custom dictionaries!

    Thanks for this!!!

    Anne E

    22 Sep 09 at 10:19 am

  50. Thank you so much for this. It's very helpful!

    James

    2 Mar 10 at 9:14 am

  51. I don't have an options option in my tool bar for word for mac 2008
    Any suggestions on how to add it to the dictionary?
    Thanks!

    Carolini

    24 Mar 10 at 3:29 pm

  52. Step 4 should help at this link.

    Rian

    25 Mar 10 at 7:09 am

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