---
title: "Custom vocabulary"
description: "Teach Speak AI unusual names, acronyms and industry jargon so they transcribe correctly. Built for medical, legal and technical recordings."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.speakai.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Custom vocabulary

## Why use custom vocabulary?

![The Vocabulary page under Settings. A Tips panel explains that you can add up to 100 unique words and that single characters and long phrases will not work, and the English list below it holds two saved words, each removable, with an Add a word box and a Save button. Add Language sits at the top right.](/help/media/transcription/transcription-custom-vocabulary.jpg)
Speak AI's transcription engine is great at recognizing common words, but it can struggle with specialized terminology, unusual names, acronyms, or industry jargon. Adding these to your custom vocabulary helps the system recognize them accurately.

## What to add

- **People names:** Unusual spellings, non-English names, nicknames
- **Company and product names:** Your company name, product names, competitor names
- **Industry terms:** Medical terminology, legal jargon, technical acronyms
- **Acronyms:** How they should appear in the transcript (e.g., "HIPAA", "GDPR", "NLP")
- **Brand-specific language:** Internal project names, feature names, code names

## Set it up

Vocabulary is kept per language, so you pick the language first and then add words to it.

1. Go to [Vocabulary](https://app.speakai.co/profile/vocabulary) in your profile.
1. Select **Add Language** and choose the language your recordings are in.
1. Type a word into **Add a word** and press Enter to add it. Repeat for each term.
1. Use **Enable Language** or **Disable Language** to turn a whole language on or off without deleting its words.

Your vocabulary applies to future transcriptions in that language. Adding a term to English does not affect your Spanish recordings, so add it to each language you record in.

## Write entries that actually get matched

Speak's in-app tips set the rules, and they are worth following:

- **Up to 100 entries per language.** Spend them on the words that actually get missed.
- **No single characters and no bare numbers.** Speak rejects them.
- **Keep entries short.** Long phrases are not recommended, so add the distinctive word rather than the whole sentence.
- **Add the unusual ones:** brand names, product names, technical terms, slang, and anything else uncommon.
- **Be specific:** add the exact spelling you want to appear in the transcript
- **Include variations:** if a term has multiple forms, for example "Speak AI" and "SpeakAI", add both
- **Focus on problem words:** start with terms you notice being consistently mis-transcribed

## Examples by industry

- **Healthcare:** Drug names, medical procedures, diagnosis codes
- **Legal:** Case names, legal terms, statute references
- **Technology:** Programming languages, framework names, API terms
- **Research:** Participant codes, methodology terms, instrument names

Custom vocabulary works alongside our AI transcription engine and improves accuracy over time as the system learns your specific terminology.

Want a hand setting this up? [Book a free consult](https://calendly.com/speak-ai/consult?utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=consult) and we'll do it together on your account.

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Related: [Transcription](/help/transcription/) · [Accuracy](/help/transcription/accuracy/)

Source: https://docs.speakai.co/help/transcription/custom-vocabulary/index.mdx