Comment 51 for bug 329968

There is a workaround. I'll post it in Ubuntu Forums and Linux Mint forums (since that's my distro of choice).

This method has only been tested under Linux Mint 8 Helena, but should work with Ubuntu Karmic and other Ubuntu and Mint releases as well. I used it for US English, but there's no reason you can't use it in your standard dictionary language of choice.

1. Download OpenMedSpel's txt and csv file in .zip format by visiting http://www.e-medtools.com/openmedspel.html and clicking on the link at the bottom of the page (or download directly from this link: http://www.e-medtools.com/openmedspel100.zip)

2. Extract the files from the archive. Open en_US_OpenMedSpel.aff with gedit. Use Cntrl+A to highlight all of the text, and Cntrl+C to copy it to the clipboard.

3. Backup the original dictionary. You can do this by renaming /usr/share/dict/american-english to american-english.bac to the filename. You will need root privileges. Then open the file you just renamed, as root, and save it as american-english.

4. Paste the the contents you copied into the file. Now the file isn't alphabetized, but that shouldn't matter. Save the file and exit.

5. Test your new dictionary by opening OpenOffice writer and typing "Zophran." Then right-click on the word. It should offer you "Zofran."