diff --git a/browser/base/content/browser-context.inc b/browser/base/content/browser-context.inc
index 74b8f18b7b0..14ceba53adf 100644
--- a/browser/base/content/browser-context.inc
+++ b/browser/base/content/browser-context.inc
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 
     <popup id="contentAreaContextMenu"
            onpopupshowing="if (event.target != this) return true; gContextMenu = new nsContextMenu( this ); return gContextMenu.shouldDisplay;"
-           onpopuphiding="if (event.target == this) { gContextMenu.hiding(); gContextMenu = null; }">
+           onpopuphiding="if (event.target == this) { gContextMenu = null; }">
       <menuitem id="spell-no-suggestions"
                 disabled="true"
                 label="&spellNoSuggestions.label;"/>
diff --git a/browser/base/content/browser.js b/browser/base/content/browser.js
index 7290e25cc06..61e48e446ca 100644
--- a/browser/base/content/browser.js
+++ b/browser/base/content/browser.js
@@ -4436,11 +4436,6 @@ nsContextMenu.prototype = {
         // Show if user clicked on something which has metadata.
         this.showItem( "context-metadata", this.onMetaDataItem );
     },
-    // called when the menu is going away
-    hiding : function() {
-        InlineSpellCheckerUI.clearSuggestionsFromMenu();
-        InlineSpellCheckerUI.clearDictionaryListFromMenu();
-    },
     // Set various context menu attributes based on the state of the world.
     setTarget : function ( node, event ) {
         const xulNS = "http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul";
@@ -4465,6 +4460,15 @@ nsContextMenu.prototype = {
         this.inFrame           = false;
         this.hasBGImage        = false;
         this.bgImageURL        = "";
+
+        // Clear any old spellchecking items from the menu, this used to
+        // be in the menu hiding code but wasn't getting called in all
+        // situations. Here, we can ensure it gets cleaned up any time the
+        // menu is shown. Note: must be before uninit because that clears the
+        // internal vars
+        InlineSpellCheckerUI.clearSuggestionsFromMenu();
+        InlineSpellCheckerUI.clearDictionaryListFromMenu();
+
         InlineSpellCheckerUI.uninit();
 
         // Remember the node that was clicked.
diff --git a/toolkit/content/inlineSpellCheckUI.js b/toolkit/content/inlineSpellCheckUI.js
index b11b9829d1b..2a84268aeb3 100644
--- a/toolkit/content/inlineSpellCheckUI.js
+++ b/toolkit/content/inlineSpellCheckUI.js
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@
 # ***** END LICENSE BLOCK *****
 
 var InlineSpellCheckerUI = {
+  mOverMisspelling: false,
+  mMisspelling: "",
+  mMenu: null,
+  mSpellSuggestions: [], // text of words
+  mSuggestionItems: [],  // menuitem nodes
+  mDictionaryMenu: null,
+  mDictionaryNames: [],
+  mDictionaryItems: [],
 
   // Call this function to initialize for a given edit element
   init: function(inputElt)
@@ -58,8 +66,8 @@ var InlineSpellCheckerUI = {
     this.mOverMisspelling = false;
     this.mMisspelling = "";
     this.mMenu = null;
-    this.mSpellSuggestions = []; // text of words
-    this.mSuggestionItems = [];  // menuitem nodes
+    this.mSpellSuggestions = [];
+    this.mSuggestionItems = [];
     this.mDictionaryMenu = null;
     this.mDictionaryNames = [];
     this.mDictionaryItems = [];