Custom Words: Teach Tap2Talk Your Jargon

Every profession has words that dictation gets wrong. A lawyer says “estoppel” and gets “a stop all.” A developer says “Kubernetes” and gets “Cooper Netties.” A dentist says “periapical” and gets “Perry apical.”

Custom words in Tap2Talk fix this. You add your specific terms — company names, product names, acronyms, technical jargon — and Whisper uses them as hints during transcription. The result: your dictation custom vocabulary is recognised correctly instead of being mangled into the closest common English word.

How Custom Words Work

When you add custom words to Tap2Talk, they are included as context for the Whisper speech-to-text model. Whisper uses these terms to bias its recognition — when it hears something that sounds like one of your custom words, it favours the correct spelling over a generic guess.

This is not a simple find-and-replace after transcription. The words influence the transcription model itself, which means Whisper is more likely to recognise the term correctly in the first place.

You add custom words in Tap2Talk’s settings. Type them in, one per line. They take effect immediately — no restart needed.

Before and After: Custom Words in Action

Software Development

Without custom words:

We need to migrate the Cooper Netties cluster to a new name space and update the helm charts for the NG Inex ingress controller.

Custom words added: Kubernetes, namespace, Helm, NGINX, ingress

With custom words:

We need to migrate the Kubernetes cluster to a new namespace and update the Helm charts for the NGINX ingress controller.

Legal

Without custom words:

The plaintiff is claiming a stop all based on the defendant’s prior representations during the due diligence phase of the more and a transaction.

Custom words added: estoppel, M&A, due diligence

With custom words:

The plaintiff is claiming estoppel based on the defendant’s prior representations during the due diligence phase of the M&A transaction.

Healthcare

Without custom words:

Patient presents with Perry apical radial Lucency on tooth 36 consistent with pulp all necrosis. Recommend endo Don tick treatment.

Custom words added: periapical, radiolucency, pulpal, endodontic

With custom words:

Patient presents with periapical radiolucency on tooth 36 consistent with pulpal necrosis. Recommend endodontic treatment.

Finance

Without custom words:

The ebb it da margin improved by 200 basis points year over year driven by the sass revenue mix shift and lower cacks.

Custom words added: EBITDA, SaaS, CAC, basis points

With custom words:

The EBITDA margin improved by 200 basis points year-over-year, driven by the SaaS revenue mix shift and lower CAC.

Architecture and Engineering

Without custom words:

The Glu Lam beams span 12 meters with steal flitch plates at the connections. We need to check the U LS calculations per as 1720.

Custom words added: glulam, flitch, ULS, AS 1720

With custom words:

The glulam beams span 12 metres with steel flitch plates at the connections. We need to check the ULS calculations per AS 1720.

What to Add as Custom Words

Focus on terms that Whisper consistently gets wrong. You do not need to add common English words — Whisper already knows those. Add:

Company and Product Names

Brand names are the most common failure. “Datadog” becomes “data dog.” “Figma” becomes “fig ma.” “Vercel” becomes “versatile.” Add every brand name you mention regularly.

Acronyms

Whisper often spells out acronyms or guesses wrong. Add them in the format you want: EBITDA, HIPAA, WCAG, NGINX, gRPC. Whisper will match the spoken letters to the correct acronym.

Technical Terms

Industry-specific words that sound like common English: estoppel, glulam, periapical, kubernetes, idempotent. If spell-check underlines it, Whisper probably needs help with it too.

People’s Names

Unusual names that Whisper misinterprets. Your colleagues, clients, or contacts whose names are not common English words.

Jargon and Slang

Industry shorthand: standup, retro, sprint, scrub (dental), pre-auth, EOB. If your field uses it daily and Whisper does not know it, add it.

How Many Words Should You Add?

There is no hard limit, but 20-50 terms covers most people. Start with the words Whisper gets wrong most often — you will know them after a day of dictation. Add those first, then expand as you notice new misrecognitions.

Quality matters more than quantity. Fifty targeted terms that you actually use will improve accuracy more than five hundred terms you rarely say.

Tips for Better Results

Be Specific with Formatting

Add words exactly as you want them to appear. If you want “GitHub” with a capital H, add GitHub, not github. If you want “HIPAA” in all caps, add HIPAA.

Include Common Misspellings

If Whisper consistently turns “Terraform” into “terra form,” adding Terraform as a custom word tells the model to keep it as one word.

Update Regularly

Your vocabulary changes. New clients, new projects, new tools. Review your custom words monthly and add terms that have been causing problems.

Combine with Custom Prompts

Custom words help Whisper recognise terms correctly. The custom cleanup prompt helps the LLM format them correctly after transcription. For example, custom words ensure “HIPAA” is recognised, and a custom prompt can ensure it is always followed by “compliant” when used as an adjective.

Custom Words vs. Custom Prompts

These are different features that solve different problems:

Feature	What It Does	Where It Works
Custom Words	Improves Whisper’s recognition of specific terms	During transcription (step 1)
Custom Prompt	Controls how the LLM formats and cleans up text	During cleanup (step 2)

Use custom words when Whisper mishears a term. Use the custom prompt when Whisper hears it correctly but the LLM formats it wrong. Use both for maximum accuracy.

Getting Started

1. Open Tap2Talk settings
2. Find the Custom Words section
3. Add your terms, one per line
4. Start dictating — the words take effect immediately

That is it. No training, no voice profiles, no waiting. Your custom vocabulary is active the moment you save it.

Tap2Talk is a one-time purchase — no subscription. Or refer 10 friends to get it free forever.

FAQ

Do custom words slow down transcription?

No. The custom words are passed as context to the Whisper model. They do not add measurable latency to the transcription process.

Can I share my custom words list with my team?

Not directly through Tap2Talk, but your custom words are stored in a configuration file. You can copy and share the list manually. Each team member would paste it into their own Tap2Talk settings.

Do custom words work for languages other than English?

Tap2Talk currently supports English only. Custom words should be English terms.