Web/HTML/Global attributes/spellcheck

The spellcheck global attribute is an enumerated attribute defines whether the element may be checked for spelling errors.

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It may have the following values:

• true, which indicates that the element should be, if possible, checked for spelling errors;
• false, which indicates that the element should not be checked for spelling errors.

Note: The spellcheck attribute is an enumerated one and not a Boolean one. This means that the explicit usage of one of the values true or false is mandatory, and that a shorthand like <textarea spellcheck></textarea> is not allowed. The correct usage is <textarea spellcheck="true"></textarea>.

If this attribute is not set, its default value is element-type and browser-defined. This default value may also be inherited, which means that the element content will be checked for spelling errors only if its nearest ancestor has a spellcheck state of true.

This attribute is merely a hint for the browser: browsers are not required to check for spelling errors. Typically non-editable elements are not checked for spelling errors, even if the spellcheck attribute is set to true and the browser supports spellchecking.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'spellcheck' in that specification.	Living Standard	No change from latest snapshot, HTML 5.1
HTML 5.1The definition of 'spellcheck' in that specification.	Recommendation	Snapshot of HTML Living Standard, initial definition

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

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	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
spellcheck	Chrome Full support 9	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 11	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support 47	Chrome Android Full support 47	Firefox Android Full support 57	Opera Android Full support 37	Safari iOS Full support 9.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See also

• All global attributes.

spellcheck by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.