How do you add custom words to Mac dictation?

Standard Dictation on your Mac has no custom word list, and you cannot train it to your voice. The route to your own words is Voice Control, which lets you add up to 1,000 vocabulary terms and teach it how to say each one ¹. The catch is that Voice Control replaces standard Dictation while it is on ². The words you add apply when you dictate through Voice Control, not when you press the Dictation key.

Standard Dictation has no word list, so the setup happens in Voice Control

Apple's Dictation help page explains how to turn Dictation on or off, how to check whether your voice is processed on your device, and how to switch to Voice Control. We read it on 2026-10-16, and it describes no custom word list and no training step. Apple's custom vocabulary steps are on their own page, linked in the next section.

Inside Voice Control, the default mode matters. In its Dictation mode, which is on by default, any words you say that are not Voice Control commands are entered as text ³. The terms you add are entered the same way as the rest of your speech.

Add words in Voice Control's Vocabulary settings

Apple's custom vocabulary page gives these steps. The page is for the macOS version selected on it, which was macOS 27 when we checked.

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Voice Control. You may need to scroll down.
2. Click Vocabulary. If the option is dimmed, the selected language does not support a custom vocabulary ⁴.
3. Start a new term, type the word or phrase the way you want it written, then click Next.
4. Start recording, say the phrase you just entered, then click Save.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each term, then click Done.

You can also add a term while you work. Select the word or phrase, then say "Add to vocabulary," as Apple's page describes in its tip. If you already keep a list of names or product terms, you can import it instead. Voice Control accepts a text file with each term on a separate line, or a file that it exported before ⁵. Use the control in the lower-right corner, choose Import Vocabulary, select the file, choose the language, then click Import.

Pronunciation needs Dictation turned on, and a term can be re-recorded

Recording how Voice Control says a term requires Dictation to be turned on ⁶. If Dictation is off, Apple's page offers Save Without Recording, so you can keep entering terms and record their pronunciations later.

If a term keeps being misheard, Control-click it in the Vocabulary list and choose Rerecord pronunciation. Apple says this replaces the earlier recording. Delete pronunciation removes the recording and keeps the term.

Voice training is a different thing from adding words

People often ask about training because older Dragon software did it. Nuance's help for Dragon for Mac version 6 says Voice Training helps the software learn how you speak, and asks you to read aloud one of its stories ⁷. Apple's Dictation has no such step. A custom vocabulary is different: it is a list of words that Voice Control should expect, and each one can carry a recorded pronunciation. Apple's custom vocabulary page describes no voice profile. For that question, see whether Dictation learns your voice and whether you need to train dictation to your voice.

It depends on your language, your word list and your Mac

Language. Voice Control supports fewer languages than Dictation. Apple lists 20 language and regional variants for Voice Control on the Mac ⁸, fewer than the 63 for Dictation ⁹. If your language is missing, or Vocabulary is dimmed for it, you cannot add terms in that language. Check the language first in the Voice Control settings, and see the guide to Dictation languages on Mac for the full list.

Length. The 1,000-term limit is a cap, not a target. A long list makes each term harder to manage, so start with the words you use most, such as names, product names and technical terms.

Text replacements. Apple's text replacement page describes replacing certain text with other text or symbols. It does not mention dictated speech, and we found no Apple source that says replacements apply to Dictation. Test one before you rely on it for a spoken word.

Accuracy. Apple does not publish accuracy numbers for custom vocabulary. We searched for an independent test with error rates before and after adding terms, and found none. The third-party guides we found make claims without measurements. If you need to know whether the list helps, measure it yourself.

What to do now

1. Check that your language supports a custom vocabulary, using the Vocabulary option in Voice Control settings.
2. Add the names, product names and technical terms you use most, recording each pronunciation, with Dictation turned on.
3. Dictate one fixed test paragraph that uses those terms, before and after adding them, and count the errors.
4. Keep the terms that reduce corrections, and re-record any that are still misheard.
5. If the built-in tool is enough, keep it. If it still misses your words after this, check the microphone you are using, because it also affects recognition.

For the full picture of what runs where, see how Apple Dictation works. For the broader set of answers on Mac dictation, see dictation on Mac. Related questions include how to correct a word by voice and custom Voice Control commands on Mac. The terms are defined in our glossary entries for custom vocabulary and Voice Control.