A typo is not a spelling mistake

Published on Thursday, 25 May 2023.
At 211 words, this article should take about 1 minute to read.

Keeping this here in the spirit of "write it down and you won't forget it".

A "typo" is not the same thing as a "spelling mistake".

I've seen the terms used interchangeably but they describe different errors.

Spelling Mistake

A spelling mistake is where a word is spelled incorrectly. These are quite common in English because we have a fair few confusingly spelled words.

• Phlegm
• Subtle
• Knight
• Island

Or because of incorrect use of apostrophes;

• The dog licked it's bowl
• Mikes Cafe
• Sausage's and eggs'

Or because of repetitive letters;

• grafitti
• neccesary

Typos

On the other hand, while a typo often results in a spelling mistake, it's usually down to a failure in the input - a typographical error.

This usually takes the form of two letters reversed; for example, I'm forever typing beacuse instead of because, missing letters as in claping, or a nearby letter like hitting the i instead of the o - The cat sat in the mat.

Auto-correct or the little red underline usually helps identify these but not always - the example of the "cat in the mat" is nonsense but no words are incorrectly spelled.

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it - many typos are spelling mistakes but not all spelling mistakes are typos!