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 |
Show answerCOMPLIANT and COMPLAINT |
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| Q2 | Pauses for abdomen |
Show answerWAIST and WAITS |
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| Q3 | Sonnet to Bambi's mother |
Show answerDOE and ODE |
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| Q4 | A parched attack |
Show answerARID and RAID |
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| Q5 | Victory to possess |
Show answerWON and OWN |
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| Q6 | An autographing vocalist |
Show answerSINGER and SIGNER |
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| Q7 | Something chanted about a problem |
Show answerSNAG and SANG |
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| Q8 | A feline performance |
Show answerACT and CAT |
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| Q9 | Wheeze at the holes |
Show answerGASP and GAPS |
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| Q10 | The price of baby beds |
Show answerCOST and COTS |
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| Q11 | Curlier disclaimer |
Show answerWAIVER and WAVIER |
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| Q12 | Moon elbow |
Show answerULNAR and LUNAR |
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| Q13 | Bend to cover completely |
Show answerWARP and WRAP |
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| Q14 | Append a male parent |
Show answerADD and DAD |
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| Q15 | Only just a grain |
Show answerBARELY and BARLEY |
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| Q16 | Pulling a pair |
Show answerTOW and TWO |
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| Q17 | Dogs' enemies |
Show answerPETS and PEST |
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| Q18 | Many things misplaced |
Show answerLOST and LOTS |
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| Q19 | Large rear end of a boat |
Show answerFAT and AFT |
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| Q20 | Rodent painting |
Show answerRAT and ART |
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| Q21 | Seasoning for a plank |
Show answerSALT and SLAT |
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| Q22 | Cautious not to go askew |
Show answerWARY and AWRY |
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| Q23 | Height of something above the equator |
Show answerALTITUDE and LATITUDE |
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| Q24 | Quiet shellfish |
Show answerCALM and CLAM |
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| Q25 | One more than two not here |
Show answerTHERE and THREE |
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| Q26 | Where lattices make home |
Show answerNETS and NEST |
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| Q27 | Steal a sphere |
Show answerORB and ROB |
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| Q28 | Released from bondage together |
Show answerUNITED and UNTIED |
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| Q29 | Give a sheep a gun |
Show answerARM and RAM |
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| Q30 | Singing medical examiner |
Show answerCORONER and CROONER |
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| Q31 | A thin strip of precious metal |
Show answerSILVER and SLIVER |
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| Q32 | Ways out are present |
Show answerEXIST and EXITS |
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| Q33 | The opposite of yes and off |
Show answerON and NO |
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| Q34 | Footwear to give you a lift |
Show answerBOOST and BOOTS |
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| Q35 | Immense troughs of liquid |
Show answerVAST and VATS |
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| Q36 | A sleepy attempt |
Show answerTRIED and TIRED |
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| Q37 | The action of taking some legal action |
Show answerSUING and USING |
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| Q38 | non-Western food |
Show answerEATS and EAST |
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| Q39 | Applause for grasping tight |
Show answerCLASP and CLAPS |
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| Q40 | Journals of pasteurizers |
Show answerDIARIES and DAIRIES |
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| Q41 | Desired engraving |
Show answerCARVED and CRAVED |
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| Q42 | Russian emperors in the night sky |
Show answerSTARS and TSARS |
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| Q43 | Resolute effort to cement |
Show answerCONCERTED and CONCRETED |
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| Q44 | Overly proud ships |
Show answerBOAST and BOATS |
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| Q45 | Made redundant and cooked |
Show answerFRIED and FIRED |
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| Q46 | Worship of enlightenment |
Show answerEDIFICATION and DEIFICATION |
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| Q47 | Smell of a portal |
Show answerDOOR and ODOR |
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| Q48 | Hides and covers many bad things |
Show answerVEILS and EVILS |
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| Q49 | A Kingly man seated on spikes |
Show answerTHORNED and THRONED |
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| Q50 | A shed with fibre |
Show answerBRAN and BARN |
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| Q51 | A measure of current cartography |
Show answerAMPS and MAPS |
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| Q52 | Whitest bed covers |
Show answerBLANKETS and BLANKEST |
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| Q53 | Electrical shorts in competition |
Show answerARCING and RACING |
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| Q54 | The path to probationary period |
Show answerTRIAL and TRAIL |
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| Q55 | Clothes worn by an animal doctor |
Show answerVETS and VEST |
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| Q56 | Sorted, organized and stored grazing ground |
Show answerFIELD and FILED |
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| Q57 | Laid back underlying reason |
Show answerCAUSAL and CASUAL |
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| Q58 | A gash in river mud |
Show answerSILT and SLIT |
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| Q59 | Full force of over-cooked |
Show answerBURNT and BRUNT |
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| Q60 | Underwired tavern |
Show answerBAR and BRA |
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| Q61 | A spotted walking stick |
Show answerACNE and CANE |
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| Q62 | Drum out the second Greek letter |
Show answerBETA and BEAT |
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| Q63 | Fading canopy |
Show answerWANING and AWNING |
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| Q64 | The flank of a King |
Show answerLION and LOIN |
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| Q65 | A listening epoch |
Show answerEAR and ERA |
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| Q66 | The accomplishments of putting on a fancy dinner |
Show answerFEAST and FEATS |
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| Q67 | Wildebeest rifle |
Show answerGNU and GUN |
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| Q68 | Taps instrument with a lump |
Show answerBULGE and BUGLE |
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| Q69 | Poured by accident, the separated |
Show answerSPILT and SPLIT |
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| Q70 | A slanted cherub |
Show answerANGEL and ANGLE |
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| Q71 | Coalesced horse |
Show answerCOLT and CLOT |
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| Q72 | A knot in the ocean action |
Show answerTIDE and TIED |
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| Q73 | A vase walking quickly |
Show answerRUN and URN |
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| Q74 | Fixes an evil jinx |
Show answerCURES and CURSE |
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| Q75 | A cut cygnus |
Show answerSAWN and SWAN |
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| Q76 | Boxed up and transported |
Show answerCARTED and CRATED |
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).