Real Academia Española

The Real Academia Española (RAE) is the principal institution responsible for safeguarding and regulating the Spanish language. It prepares, publishes and updates the Diccionario de la lengua española, which is the authoritative reference for Spanish vocabulary. The academy also issues grammar guides, orthographic rules and style manuals that serve educators, writers and translators. Through its programs, the RAE promotes linguistic unity across the Spanish‑speaking world while respecting regional varieties. It collaborates with the twenty‑two other academies that form the Association of Spanish Language Academies to coordinate language policy.

As a regulatory body, the RAE holds a unique position in the cultural sector, providing normative decisions that are adopted by governments, media and educational institutions. Its notable competencies include lexicographic research, corpus linguistics and the digital dissemination of language resources through online portals. In February 2025 the RAE reported a cybersecurity attack on its IT infrastructure that triggered immediate containment and mitigation measures. The academy confirmed that its linguistic heritage and working tools remained secure and operational during the incident. External services were restored to normal functionality after the event, and authorities were notified as part of the response protocol. Specialized resource access was expected to resume fully within days, illustrating the institution’s resilience to technical threats.