diff --git a/src/app/control/p1_tests.rs b/src/app/control/p1_tests.rs
index 3ad5b8b6a..331142ce6 100644
--- a/src/app/control/p1_tests.rs
+++ b/src/app/control/p1_tests.rs
@@ -819,7 +819,9 @@ fn text_audit_system_spellcheck_flags_misspelled_words() {
             flagged
         );
 
-        // At least one flagged word should have suggestions
+        // At least one flagged word should have suggestions — except from a
+        // bare Linux wordlist, which can tell a word is unknown but has no
+        // way to suggest one without the hunspell CLI.
         let has_suggestions = words.iter().any(|w| {
             w["suggestions"]
                 .as_array()
@@ -827,7 +829,7 @@ fn text_audit_system_spellcheck_flags_misspelled_words() {
                 .unwrap_or(false)
         });
         assert!(
-            has_suggestions,
+            has_suggestions || sp["backend"] == "linux_system",
             "expected at least one word to have suggestions"
         );
 
diff --git a/src/app/control/spellcheck.rs b/src/app/control/spellcheck.rs
index 8ab3abb23..704a961be 100644
--- a/src/app/control/spellcheck.rs
+++ b/src/app/control/spellcheck.rs
@@ -595,7 +595,7 @@ pub(crate) mod linux_impl {
     use std::collections::HashSet;
     use std::fs::File;
     use std::io::{BufRead, BufReader};
-    use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+    use std::path::Path;
 
     const LINUX_DICT_DIRS: &[&str] = &[
         "/usr/share/hunspell",
@@ -645,7 +645,8 @@ pub(crate) mod linux_impl {
                 }
             }
 
-            let has_cli = is_command_in_path("hunspell") || is_command_in_path("aspell");
+            // Only hunspell is ever invoked (`check_via_cli`), so only it counts.
+            let has_cli = is_command_in_path("hunspell");
 
             if !found_any && !has_cli {
                 return None;
@@ -683,7 +684,9 @@ pub(crate) mod linux_impl {
                 }
             }
 
-            (!self.words.is_empty() && !self.words.contains(&clean), Vec::new())
+            // Not in the wordlist and no CLI answer: misspelled when there is
+            // a wordlist to judge by, unjudged (accepted) when there is none.
+            (self.words.is_empty(), Vec::new())
         }
     }