Phrase guide

Cupertino effect

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The replacement, by a spell checker, of words that are real (such as proper nouns or alternate spellings), but missing from its internal dictionary, with words that are starkly incorrect in context.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: originally

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences, software

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The failure of spell checkers to replace incorrectly spelled words with the actually intended words, resulting in miscorrections.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Named for the fact that some older computer spellcheckers did not include the form cooperation and would automatically replace it not with co-operation, but with Cupertino, a name of a city in northern California and headquarters of Apple Inc.