Term for a misspelled word, where the “misspelling” is a correctly spelled but out of context word?












2














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?










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  • 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
















2














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?










share|improve this question


















  • 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














2












2








2







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?










share|improve this question













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






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share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










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














  • 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










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















5














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.






share|improve this answer























  • 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





















0














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.






share|improve this answer





















  • 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











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2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes








2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









5














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.






share|improve this answer























  • 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


















5














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.






share|improve this answer























  • 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
















5












5








5






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.






share|improve this answer














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.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








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




















  • 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















0














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.






share|improve this answer





















  • 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
















0














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.






share|improve this answer





















  • 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














0












0








0






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.






share|improve this answer












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.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










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


















  • 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


















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