diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f830aca3a..567cff4fb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,4 +12,7 @@ vendor
 
 # yard
 .yardoc
-doc/*
\ No newline at end of file
+doc/*
+
+# our custom dictionary pulled from https://github.com/chef/chef_dictionary/
+chef_dictionary.txt
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 200737d3a..93aff2952 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ require "bundler/gem_tasks"
 
 begin
   require "rspec/core/rake_task"
+  require_relative "tasks/spellcheck"
 
   RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new do |t|
     t.pattern = "spec/**/*_spec.rb"
diff --git a/cspell.json b/cspell.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..97996bf9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cspell.json
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+// cSpell Settings
+{
+  // Version of the setting file.  Always 0.1
+  "version": "0.1",
+  // language - current active spelling language
+  "language": "en",
+  "dictionaryDefinitions": [
+    {
+        "name": "chef",
+        "file": "./chef_dictionary.txt",
+        "description": "Custom Chef Dictionary"
+    }
+  ],
+  "dictionaries": ["chef"],
+  // flagWords - list of words to be always considered incorrect
+  // This is useful for offensive words and common spelling errors.
+  // For example "hte" should be "the"
+  "flagWords": [
+    "hte"
+  ],
+  "ignorePaths": [
+    "CHANGELOG.md",
+    "**/*.gemspec",
+    "**/Gemfile.lock",
+    "**/Gemfile",
+    ".expeditor/**/*",
+    "**/*.yml",
+    "**/*.toml",
+    "spec/data/**/*",
+    "spec/**"
+  ],
+  "ignoreRegExpList": [
+    // Ignore "'s" at the end of a word. If "Chef" is an accepted word, so is "Chef's".
+    "/'s\\b/",
+    // Ignore "'d" at the end of a word. If "dup" is an accepted word, so is "dup'd".
+    "/'d\\b/"
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/tasks/spellcheck.rb b/tasks/spellcheck.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..002518d9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tasks/spellcheck.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#
+# Copyright:: Copyright (c) Chef Software Inc.
+# License:: Apache License, Version 2.0
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+namespace :spellcheck do
+  task :fetch_common do
+    sh "wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chef/chef_dictionary/master/chef.txt -O chef_dictionary.txt"
+  end
+
+  task run: :fetch_common do
+    sh 'cspell "**/*"'
+  end
+
+  desc "List the unique unrecognized words in the project."
+  task unknown_words: :fetch_common  do
+    sh 'cspell "**/*" --wordsOnly --no-summary | sort | uniq'
+  end
+end
+
+desc "Run spellcheck on the project."
+task spellcheck: "spellcheck:run"