Is there a way to get a word to be rendered with a different face in text mode?
Check out `highlight-regexp'. Just type in the word you want to change the face for (although it can be any regular expression).
M-x highlight-regexp
highlight-regexp is an alias for `hi-lock-face-buffer' in
`hi-lock.el'.
It is bound to M-s h r.
(highlight-regexp regexp &optional face)
Set face of each match of regexp to face.
Interactively, prompt for regexp then face. Buffer-local history
list maintained for regexps, global history maintained for faces.
Use M-p to retrieve previous history items,
and M-n to retrieve default values.