Term for a misspelled word, where the “misspelling” is a correctly spelled but out of context word?
You mistype a word. You make a "finger check". You accidentally transpose letters typing too fast, or from muscle memory.
A spelling checker does not recognize your typo because your incorrect typing resulted in a correctly spelled (though wrong and unintended) word.
Only careful human reading (or maybe very sophisticated context analysis) will catch this mistake of a word that was not intended to be used.
What is the term for such a 'misspelling' (or this specific class of typographical error)?
People have argued that by definition, the mistyping is not a misspelling. This makes talk about locating these errors even more difficult because of the ambiguity of "spelling error" in this context.
What term would you use when requesting an editor to specifically look for this "misspelling but not a misspelling" class of error?
terminology
add a comment |
You mistype a word. You make a "finger check". You accidentally transpose letters typing too fast, or from muscle memory.
A spelling checker does not recognize your typo because your incorrect typing resulted in a correctly spelled (though wrong and unintended) word.
Only careful human reading (or maybe very sophisticated context analysis) will catch this mistake of a word that was not intended to be used.
What is the term for such a 'misspelling' (or this specific class of typographical error)?
People have argued that by definition, the mistyping is not a misspelling. This makes talk about locating these errors even more difficult because of the ambiguity of "spelling error" in this context.
What term would you use when requesting an editor to specifically look for this "misspelling but not a misspelling" class of error?
terminology
1
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
1
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12
add a comment |
You mistype a word. You make a "finger check". You accidentally transpose letters typing too fast, or from muscle memory.
A spelling checker does not recognize your typo because your incorrect typing resulted in a correctly spelled (though wrong and unintended) word.
Only careful human reading (or maybe very sophisticated context analysis) will catch this mistake of a word that was not intended to be used.
What is the term for such a 'misspelling' (or this specific class of typographical error)?
People have argued that by definition, the mistyping is not a misspelling. This makes talk about locating these errors even more difficult because of the ambiguity of "spelling error" in this context.
What term would you use when requesting an editor to specifically look for this "misspelling but not a misspelling" class of error?
terminology
You mistype a word. You make a "finger check". You accidentally transpose letters typing too fast, or from muscle memory.
A spelling checker does not recognize your typo because your incorrect typing resulted in a correctly spelled (though wrong and unintended) word.
Only careful human reading (or maybe very sophisticated context analysis) will catch this mistake of a word that was not intended to be used.
What is the term for such a 'misspelling' (or this specific class of typographical error)?
People have argued that by definition, the mistyping is not a misspelling. This makes talk about locating these errors even more difficult because of the ambiguity of "spelling error" in this context.
What term would you use when requesting an editor to specifically look for this "misspelling but not a misspelling" class of error?
terminology
terminology
asked Dec 9 '18 at 4:07
HiTechHiTouch
1133
1133
1
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
1
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12
add a comment |
1
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
1
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12
1
1
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
1
1
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
The phrase you're looking for is 'atomic typo'.
Urban Dictionary defines an atomic typo as:
A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the
spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled
correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are
called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely
changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of
the spell check function
Examples:
Chris, instead of Christ; war, instead of was; bite, instead of byte; massage, instead of message
There's an interesting blog post on the subject of atomic typos, at CentrEditing, which says:
The term ‘atomic typo’ was coined in 2002 and since then it has
appeared in various blogs and newspapers but doesn’t seem to be in
common usage (it returns only just over 3000 results on Google!).
There's even a blogspot dedicated to the atomic typo.
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
add a comment |
This is not exactly what you need, since it doesn't include the low edit distance to the intended word, but in a bind you could say that there was a
miswording
(wrong wording or expression)
rather than a misspelling.
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f476216%2fterm-for-a-misspelled-word-where-the-misspelling-is-a-correctly-spelled-but-o%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
The phrase you're looking for is 'atomic typo'.
Urban Dictionary defines an atomic typo as:
A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the
spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled
correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are
called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely
changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of
the spell check function
Examples:
Chris, instead of Christ; war, instead of was; bite, instead of byte; massage, instead of message
There's an interesting blog post on the subject of atomic typos, at CentrEditing, which says:
The term ‘atomic typo’ was coined in 2002 and since then it has
appeared in various blogs and newspapers but doesn’t seem to be in
common usage (it returns only just over 3000 results on Google!).
There's even a blogspot dedicated to the atomic typo.
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
add a comment |
The phrase you're looking for is 'atomic typo'.
Urban Dictionary defines an atomic typo as:
A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the
spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled
correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are
called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely
changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of
the spell check function
Examples:
Chris, instead of Christ; war, instead of was; bite, instead of byte; massage, instead of message
There's an interesting blog post on the subject of atomic typos, at CentrEditing, which says:
The term ‘atomic typo’ was coined in 2002 and since then it has
appeared in various blogs and newspapers but doesn’t seem to be in
common usage (it returns only just over 3000 results on Google!).
There's even a blogspot dedicated to the atomic typo.
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
add a comment |
The phrase you're looking for is 'atomic typo'.
Urban Dictionary defines an atomic typo as:
A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the
spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled
correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are
called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely
changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of
the spell check function
Examples:
Chris, instead of Christ; war, instead of was; bite, instead of byte; massage, instead of message
There's an interesting blog post on the subject of atomic typos, at CentrEditing, which says:
The term ‘atomic typo’ was coined in 2002 and since then it has
appeared in various blogs and newspapers but doesn’t seem to be in
common usage (it returns only just over 3000 results on Google!).
There's even a blogspot dedicated to the atomic typo.
The phrase you're looking for is 'atomic typo'.
Urban Dictionary defines an atomic typo as:
A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the
spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled
correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are
called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely
changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of
the spell check function
Examples:
Chris, instead of Christ; war, instead of was; bite, instead of byte; massage, instead of message
There's an interesting blog post on the subject of atomic typos, at CentrEditing, which says:
The term ‘atomic typo’ was coined in 2002 and since then it has
appeared in various blogs and newspapers but doesn’t seem to be in
common usage (it returns only just over 3000 results on Google!).
There's even a blogspot dedicated to the atomic typo.
edited Dec 9 '18 at 10:45
answered Dec 9 '18 at 9:08
Kiloran_speaking
2,146713
2,146713
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
add a comment |
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
Excellent answer. I find that the spellchecker (with auto correction) is often the culprit! And if I write "Don't stair at me, through your sun's glasses", my browser highlights no errors.
– WS2
Dec 9 '18 at 9:21
add a comment |
This is not exactly what you need, since it doesn't include the low edit distance to the intended word, but in a bind you could say that there was a
miswording
(wrong wording or expression)
rather than a misspelling.
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
add a comment |
This is not exactly what you need, since it doesn't include the low edit distance to the intended word, but in a bind you could say that there was a
miswording
(wrong wording or expression)
rather than a misspelling.
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
add a comment |
This is not exactly what you need, since it doesn't include the low edit distance to the intended word, but in a bind you could say that there was a
miswording
(wrong wording or expression)
rather than a misspelling.
This is not exactly what you need, since it doesn't include the low edit distance to the intended word, but in a bind you could say that there was a
miswording
(wrong wording or expression)
rather than a misspelling.
answered Dec 9 '18 at 4:54
Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen
1757
1757
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
add a comment |
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
I don't think the 'low edit distance' is your only problem with this answer (nicely put, by the way); I'm not convinced wrong wording is equivalent to wrong word.
– tmgr
Dec 9 '18 at 10:58
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f476216%2fterm-for-a-misspelled-word-where-the-misspelling-is-a-correctly-spelled-but-o%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
As Eugune Seidel suggests, typo is likely the correct term.
– Geoff Ball
Dec 9 '18 at 4:25
1
If I had to coin my own term, it might be an 'in lexicon mistyping'.
– AmI
Dec 9 '18 at 5:12