Download the required Hunspell dictionary from Open Office or Mozilla Firefox. The file typically has an OXT extension from OpenOffice, but may vary depending on the source.
Last updated on
Jun 2, 2026
Learn how to expand spell-checking and hyphenation support to over 90 languages in Adobe InDesign.
Hunspell dictionary support allows you to integrate additional language dictionaries beyond the default options on InDesign, allowing spell-checking and hyphenation for specialized languages or regional variants.
Before you begin
Modifying or replacing InDesign dictionaries can change line breaks and spell-check results in existing documents when you re-edit them. Back up original dictionary files so you can revert if needed. To modify existing InDesign dictionaries or manage user-added words, go to Edit > Preferences > Dictionary (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Dictionary (macOS).
Download and prepare dictionary files
Rename the filename extension from OXT (or other extension) to ZIP.
Extract the contents of the ZIP archive to a temporary folder.
Locate the AFF (affix) file, spelling dictionary DIC file, and hyphenation dictionary DIC file within the extracted contents.
Rename each file using ISO language codes in the format languageCode_COUNTRYCODE (for example, en_US for English United States). Refer to ISO 639-1 language codes and ISO 3166-1 country codes for proper formatting.
The three file types require specific naming conventions:
|
File type |
Naming format |
Example |
|
Affix file |
languageCode_COUNTRYCODE.aff |
en_US.aff |
|
Spelling dictionary |
languageCode_COUNTRYCODE.dic |
en_US.dic |
|
Hyphenation dictionary |
hyph_languageCode_COUNTRYCODE.dic |
hyph_en_US.dic |
Install dictionary files in InDesign
Create a new folder named using your ISO language code format (for example, en_US) within the Dictionaries folder at the location specified in the following table for your platform.
Copy the three renamed dictionary files into the newly created language folder.
Navigate to the Info.plist file location specified in the following table for your platform.
Open Info.plist in a text editor and locate the SpellingService, UserDictionaryService, and HyphenationService elements.
Add a new element containing your ISO language code (for example, en_US) within each of these three service elements.
Save the Info.plist file, then close the text editor.
Restart InDesign.
Dictionaries folder locations
|
Platform |
Dictionaries folder path |
|
Windows 64-bit |
Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign <year>\Resources\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin\Dictionaries |
|
macOS |
Applications/Adobe InDesign CC/Resources/Dictionaries/LILO/Linguistics/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle/Contents/SharedSupport/Dictionaries |
Info.plist file locations
|
Platform |
Dictionaries folder path |
|
Windows 64-bit |
Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign [year]\Resources\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin |
|
macOS |
Applications/Adobe InDesign CC/Resources/Dictionaries/LILO/Linguistics/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle/Contents |
Remove a Hunspell dictionary
Navigate to the Dictionaries folder location specified in the table above for your platform and InDesign version.
Locate the folder named with the ISO language code you want to remove (for example, en_US).
Delete the three dictionary files within that folder: the AFF file, the spelling DIC file, and the hyphenation DIC file.
Navigate to the Info.plist file location specified in the table above.
Open Info.plist in a text editor and locate the SpellingService, UserDictionaryService, and HyphenationService elements.
Remove the element containing your ISO language code from each of these three service elements.
Save the Info.plist file, then close the text editor.
Restart InDesign.
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