Automatically detecting a misspelled word and replacing the misspelled word with a correctly spelled word. Words are automatically spell checked as delimited. If a word is detected as a misspelled word then a correctly spelled alternate word is generated. The misspelled word and the correctly spelled alternate word are compared according to a set of difference criteria. The difference criteria correspond to common types of misspellings. If the misspelled word and the correctly spelled alternate word differ according to a difference criterion then the correctly spelled alternate word is identified as a replacement candidate word. The results of the difference criteria comparisons are reviewed using a set of selection criteria. If the results of the difference criteria comparisons satisfy the selection criteria then one of the replacement candidate words is correctly spelled as a replacement word and the misspelled word is replaced by the replacement word.