The return of the atomic typo
Recently, I wrote an article about fat-finger typos. These are mistakes in which, when aiming for a certain letter, you miss and hit one of the neighboring keys. If the resulting mistake is also a legitimately spelled word, the mistake is called an atomic typo. Because the offending word is correctly spelled, these errors are not picked up by standard spell-checking software. My original article talked about words created by hitting keys next to the desired one can be found here.
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In this article, I'm going to describe a different class of atomic typos. These are errors caused by the switching of two adjacent letters. For instance instead of typing NUCLEAR, if you mistakenly switched the first two letters you'd end up with the very different word UNCLEAR. Just like the previous class of errors, these miss-types are not detected with regular spell check. |
In this article, I've created a list of all the legitimate atomic typos that can be found be switching just one set of adjacent letters. Obviously, there are some trivial examples; any word that contains two (or more) of the same letter in a row can make an atomic typo that ends up being exactly the same word! If you made a typing error and switched the two middle letters of the word FOOD by mistake, you end up with the same word. I'm going to discount these words.
Quiz
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To make it a bit more fun, I've selected a number of pairs of words, e.g. NUCLEAR and UNCLEAR, and given them crossword style clues. How many can you get? If you like these kind of word puzzles, you should also check out my add an 's' quiz. Instructions: Read the clue, then solve the riddle. Click on the [Answer] button to reveal solution. If you want to cheat, you can click here to reveal all the answers straight away. |
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| Q1 | Flexible grievance |
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| Q2 | Pauses for abdomen |
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| Q3 | Sonnet to Bambi's mother |
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| Q4 | A parched attack |
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| Q5 | Victory to possess |
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| Q6 | An autographing vocalist |
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| Q7 | Something chanted about a problem |
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| Q8 | A feline performance |
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| Q9 | Wheeze at the holes |
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| Q10 | The price of baby beds |
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| Q11 | Curlier disclaimer |
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| Q12 | Moon elbow |
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| Q13 | Bend to cover completely |
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| Q14 | Append a male parent |
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| Q15 | Only just a grain |
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| Q16 | Pulling a pair |
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| Q17 | Dogs' enemies |
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| Q18 | Many things misplaced |
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| Q19 | Large rear end of a boat |
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| Q20 | Rodent painting |
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| Q21 | Seasoning for a plank |
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| Q22 | Cautious not to go askew |
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| Q23 | Height of something above the equator |
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| Q24 | Quiet shellfish |
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| Q25 | One more than two not here |
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| Q26 | Where lattices make home |
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| Q27 | Steal a sphere |
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| Q28 | Released from bondage together |
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| Q29 | Give a sheep a gun |
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| Q30 | Singing medical examiner |
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| Q31 | A thin strip of precious metal |
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| Q32 | Ways out are present |
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| Q33 | The opposite of yes and off |
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| Q34 | Footwear to give you a lift |
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| Q35 | Immense troughs of liquid |
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| Q36 | A sleepy attempt |
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| Q37 | The action of taking some legal action |
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| Q38 | non-Western food |
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| Q39 | Applause for grasping tight |
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| Q40 | Journals of pasteurizers |
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| Q41 | Desired engraving |
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| Q42 | Russian emperors in the night sky |
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| Q43 | Resolute effort to cement |
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| Q44 | Overly proud ships |
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| Q45 | Made redundant and cooked |
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| Q46 | Worship of enlightenment |
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| Q47 | Smell of a portal |
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| Q48 | Hides and covers many bad things |
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| Q49 | A Kingly man seated on spikes |
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| Q50 | A shed with fibre |
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| Q51 | A measure of current cartography |
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| Q52 | Whitest bed covers |
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| Q53 | Electrical shorts in competition |
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| Q54 | The path to probationary period |
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| Q55 | Clothes worn by an animal doctor |
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| Q56 | Sorted, organized and stored grazing ground |
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| Q57 | Laid back underlying reason |
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| Q58 | A gash in river mud |
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| Q59 | Full force of over-cooked |
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| Q60 | Underwired tavern |
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| Q61 | A spotted walking stick |
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| Q62 | Drum out the second Greek letter |
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| Q63 | Fading canopy |
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| Q64 | The flank of a King |
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| Q65 | A listening epoch |
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| Q66 | The accomplishments of putting on a fancy dinner |
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| Q67 | Wildebeest rifle |
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| Q68 | Taps instrument with a lump |
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| Q69 | Poured by accident, the separated |
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| Q70 | A slanted cherub |
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| Q71 | Coalesced horse |
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| Q72 | A knot in the ocean action |
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| Q73 | A vase walking quickly |
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| Q74 | Fixes an evil jinx |
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| Q75 | A cut cygnus |
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| Q76 | Boxed up and transported |
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Complete List
Want to see the complete list? You can view the complete list of words that can be formed using the transposition of two adjacent letters. (Link opens in a new window).
You can find a complete list of all the articles here.
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