diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index b3d2a6f..5801395 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ below and to the page that documents the feature properly.
 
 | Version | What changed | Documented in |
 |---|---|---|
+| [2.14.0](#v2140) | CC003 judges imperative mood by a word's form, not by a list of verbs | [CC003](rules.md#cc003) |
 | [2.13.1](#v2131) | JSON output reports the checked value for passing checks | [Output for scripts and CI](example.md#output-for-scripts-and-ci) |
 | [2.13.0](#v2130) | Stable rule IDs in terminal output and JSON | [Rules reference](rules.md) |
 | [2.12.0](#v2120) | Author name and email patterns became configurable | [CC101](rules.md#cc101) · [CC102](rules.md#cc102) |
@@ -23,6 +24,37 @@ below and to the page that documents the feature properly.
 | [2.5.0](#v250) | Organization-wide config with `inherit_from` | [Integrations](guides/integrations.md#across-an-organization) |
 | [2.0.0](#v200) | Configuration moved from YAML to TOML — breaking | [Migrating from v1](migration.md) |
 
+## v2.14.0 (unreleased) { #v2140 }
+
+### Changed
+
+* **CC003 judges the word's form, not its membership in a list** — the rule
+  used to accept a subject only when its first word appeared in a list of
+  known imperative verbs, so any verb the list had not heard of was reported
+  as a mood error. Growing the list never fixed that; each release recognised
+  a few more verbs and the next contributor found the next gap.
+
+  It now works the other way round. A first word is rejected only when it
+  carries non-imperative morphology — a past tense (`fixed`), a gerund
+  (`adding`) or a third person singular (`fixes`) — and accepted otherwise.
+  Measured across 59,140 subjects from `git.git`, a project that writes
+  strictly imperative subjects, the old list rejected 45.5% of them; the new
+  rule rejects 0.97%.
+
+  Nothing that passed before fails now. Two things that used to fail now pass:
+
+    * Subjects led by a correct verb no list contained — `reword the report
+      format`, `dedupe the helper`, `backfill an absent value`.
+    * Subjects led by a noun — `parser improvements`. CC003 checks mood, and a
+      noun phrase has none to get wrong.
+
+  The practical consequence is that **`IMPERATIVES` no longer needs additions**.
+  A verb missing from it can no longer cause a failure, so there is no reason
+  to send a patch adding the verb you just used.
+
+  See PR [#540](https://github.com/commit-check/commit-check/pull/540), which
+  closes issue [#526](https://github.com/commit-check/commit-check/issues/526).
+
 ## v2.13.1 (2026-08-05) { #v2131 }
 
 ### New Features
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index 0e92584..6d5fe20 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ the same thing twice, so read the description rather than the cell:
 | commit | conventional_commits | bool | true | Enforce Conventional Commits specification. |
 | commit | message_pattern | str | "" (no custom pattern) | Custom regex pattern for commit message validation.  When set, this pattern replaces the auto-generated Conventional Commits regex entirely, making it possible to enforce custom formats such as JIRA smart commits (e.g., `"^PROJ-\\d+: .+"`).  When `message_pattern` is set (non-empty) it takes precedence over `conventional_commits`. |
 | commit | subject_capitalized | bool | false | Subject must start with a capital letter. |
-| commit | subject_imperative | bool | false | Subject must be in imperative mood. Forms of verbs can be found at [imperatives.py](https://github.com/commit-check/commit-check/blob/main/commit_check/imperatives.py) |
+| commit | subject_imperative | bool | false | Subject must be in imperative mood. Judged on the first word's form, so a verb no list contains is still accepted — see [CC003](rules.md#cc003). |
 | commit | subject_max_length | int | 80 | Maximum length of the subject line. |
 | commit | subject_min_length | int | 5 | Minimum length of the subject line. |
 | commit | allow_commit_types | list[str] | ["feat", "fix", "docs", "style", "refactor", "test", "chore", "perf", "build", "ci"] | Allowed commit types when conventional_commits is true. |
diff --git a/docs/rules.md b/docs/rules.md
index ddafe1e..6a82ba8 100644
--- a/docs/rules.md
+++ b/docs/rules.md
@@ -213,13 +213,23 @@ Use instead:
 fix: handle an empty config file
 ```
 
+**What it does not do**
+
+The rule reads the *form* of the first word, not a vocabulary, so it does not
+need to recognise your verb. Anything that is not a past tense, a gerund or a
+third-person singular is accepted — including verbs no word list contains, and
+subjects that lead with a noun (`fix: parser improvements`), which have no mood
+to get wrong.
+
+The trade is that a word's form does not always tell you how it is being used.
+`fix: spelling in the docs` is reported: `spelling` is a noun there, but it
+wears the `-ing` of a gerund, and a rule that reads the ending cannot tell the
+two apart.
+
 **Options**
 
 * `commit.subject_imperative` — set to `true` to enable this rule.
 
-The list of recognised non-imperative verb forms lives in
-[imperatives.py](https://github.com/commit-check/commit-check/blob/main/commit_check/imperatives.py).
-
 ### subject-max-length (CC004) { #cc004 }
 
 **What it does**