diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2fd6957..72c07c7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ You can also use a Hunspell dictionary for stemming. [master]
 
 ```ruby
 class Product < ApplicationRecord
-  searchkick language: {type: "hunspell", locale: "en_US"}
+  searchkick stemmer: {type: "hunspell", locale: "en_US"}
 end
 ```
 
diff --git a/lib/searchkick/index_options.rb b/lib/searchkick/index_options.rb
index 25190db..83bb5ec 100644
--- a/lib/searchkick/index_options.rb
+++ b/lib/searchkick/index_options.rb
@@ -153,11 +153,8 @@ module Searchkick
         }
       }
 
-      if language.is_a?(Hash)
-        update_language_type(settings, language)
-      else
-        update_language(settings, language)
-      end
+      raise ArgumentError, "Can't pass both language and stemmer" if options[:stemmer] && language
+      update_language(settings, language)
       update_stemming(settings)
 
       if Searchkick.env == "test"
@@ -200,16 +197,6 @@ module Searchkick
       settings
     end
 
-    def update_language_type(settings, language)
-      case language[:type]
-      when "hunspell"
-        # supports all token filter options
-        settings[:analysis][:filter][:searchkick_stemmer] = language
-      else
-        raise ArgumentError, "Unknown language: #{language[:type]}"
-      end
-    end
-
     def update_language(settings, language)
       case language
       when "chinese"
@@ -300,6 +287,18 @@ module Searchkick
     end
 
     def update_stemming(settings)
+      if options[:stemmer]
+        stemmer = options[:stemmer]
+        # could also support snowball and stemmer
+        case stemmer[:type]
+        when "hunspell"
+          # supports all token filter options
+          settings[:analysis][:filter][:searchkick_stemmer] = stemmer
+        else
+          raise ArgumentError, "Unknown stemmer: #{stemmer[:type]}"
+        end
+      end
+
       stem = options[:stem]
 
       # language analyzer used
diff --git a/lib/searchkick/model.rb b/lib/searchkick/model.rb
index fbf74a3..fe8d14e 100644
--- a/lib/searchkick/model.rb
+++ b/lib/searchkick/model.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module Searchkick
       unknown_keywords = options.keys - [:_all, :_type, :batch_size, :callbacks, :case_sensitive, :conversions, :deep_paging, :default_fields,
         :filterable, :geo_shape, :highlight, :ignore_above, :index_name, :index_prefix, :inheritance, :language,
         :locations, :mappings, :match, :merge_mappings, :routing, :searchable, :search_synonyms, :settings, :similarity,
-        :special_characters, :stem, :stem_conversions, :stem_exclusion, :stemmer_override, :suggest, :synonyms, :text_end,
+        :special_characters, :stem, :stemmer, :stem_conversions, :stem_exclusion, :stemmer_override, :suggest, :synonyms, :text_end,
         :text_middle, :text_start, :word, :wordnet, :word_end, :word_middle, :word_start]
       raise ArgumentError, "unknown keywords: #{unknown_keywords.join(", ")}" if unknown_keywords.any?
 
diff --git a/test/language_test.rb b/test/language_test.rb
index c6ba326..ec9b7a3 100644
--- a/test/language_test.rb
+++ b/test/language_test.rb
@@ -90,21 +90,31 @@ class LanguageTest < Minitest::Test
     end
   end
 
-  def test_hunspell
+  def test_stemmer_hunspell
     skip if ci?
 
-    with_options({language: {type: "hunspell", locale: "en_US"}}) do
+    with_options({stemmer: {type: "hunspell", locale: "en_US"}}) do
       store_names ["the foxes jumping quickly"]
       assert_language_search "fox", ["the foxes jumping quickly"]
     end
   end
 
-  def test_unknown_type
+  def test_stemmer_unknown_type
     error = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
-      with_options({language: {type: "bad"}}) do
+      with_options({stemmer: {type: "bad"}}) do
       end
     end
-    assert_equal "Unknown language: bad", error.message
+    assert_equal "Unknown stemmer: bad", error.message
+  end
+
+  def test_stemmer_language
+    skip if ci?
+
+    error = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      with_options({stemmer: {type: "hunspell", locale: "en_US"}, language: "english"}) do
+      end
+    end
+    assert_equal "Can't pass both language and stemmer", error.message
   end
 
   def assert_language_search(term, expected)
--
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