TYPING & KEYBOARD GLOSSARY

The share of keystrokes that were correct. Different tests count it differently: some count only characters, some count corrected errors as misses, some ignore corrections. Kwerty counts every keystroke, including the space that submits a word, and treats a corrected error as an error.

Number: Median here: 76% (the pre-September-2026 rule capped a flawless run near 80%; the current rule does not).

On Kwerty: How Kwerty scores you

How hard a key has to be pressed before it registers, measured in grams-force at the actuation point. Lighter switches register with less effort and invite accidental presses; heavier ones tire the hands over long sessions.

Number: Common range 35–65 g; most typists settle around 45–55 g.

On Kwerty: The five checks

The depth at which a key press registers. A mechanical switch registers partway through its travel; a rubber-dome key registers only when the dome collapses, near the bottom.

Number: About 2 mm on a standard 4 mm mechanical switch; 1–1.5 mm on many low-profile switches.

On Kwerty: The cutaway, layer 3

The share of consecutive letter pairs typed by opposite hands. Alternating pairs are the fastest to type because one hand can move while the other presses.

Number: The practice-ladder sentences range from 29% to 79%.

On Kwerty: How each sentence is scored

The two common physical layouts. ANSI (US) has a wide, single-row Enter and a long left Shift; ISO (UK and most of Europe) has a tall two-row Enter, a short left Shift and an extra key beside it. Keycap sets are made for one or the other.

Number: ISO has one more key (105 vs 104 on a full-size board).

A keyboard's ability to register several keys at once without inventing a press that did not happen (a ghost). See rollover.

Number: Gaming boards advertise it; for typing, 6-key rollover is more than enough.

Any two consecutive letters. Typing speed is mostly decided by how the hands handle bigrams, not single keys, because the fingers prepare the next key while pressing the current one.

Number: There are 676 possible letter bigrams; a few dozen cover most English text.

On Kwerty: Bottleneck finder

Pressing a key all the way to the end of its travel. Mechanical switches register before that point, so bottoming out wastes travel and force; gasket-mounted boards cushion it.

Number: Roughly 2 mm of unnecessary travel per keystroke on a 4 mm switch.

On Kwerty: Cutaway, layer 2

The speed over a short stretch, a few seconds or one sentence. Always higher than sustained speed, sometimes by a lot; most online records are bursts.

Number: Platform bursts above 300 wpm exist; the verified sustained record is 150 wpm for 50 minutes.

On Kwerty: Burst vs sustained

Correct characters typed in a minute, spaces usually included. Some tests report it instead of WPM, or alongside it.

Number: CPM ÷ 5 = WPM under the standard-word convention.

A mechanical switch with a tactile bump and an audible click at the actuation point (Cherry MX Blue is the reference). Loud; the click marks the register point precisely.

Number: Typically 50–60 g actuation.

On Kwerty: Quiet alternatives

On Kwerty, the number of consecutive words typed without an error. The score multiplier grows with it, which is why the same WPM can give very different scores.

Number: Median longest streak here: 6 words under 30 wpm, 28 above 70.

On Kwerty: Lab report

The short window after a key press during which the keyboard ignores the switch's electrical bounce, so one press is not read as several. Too long and fast double-taps are lost.

Number: Usually 5–20 ms.

An alternative letter layout (1936) that puts the most common letters on the home row. Real, learnable, and a small speed advantage at best; nearly every record is on QWERTY.

Number: About 70% of English keystrokes land on the Dvorak home row versus about 32% on QWERTY's.

Errors as a share of keystrokes; the complement of accuracy. Some tests report uncorrected errors only.

Number: A 97% accuracy target is a 3% error rate.

The 104/105-key board with a function row, navigation cluster and number pad. Widest; pushes the mouse furthest to the right.

Number: About 44 cm wide.

On Kwerty: Layout

A construction where the plate that holds the switches sits on rubber or foam strips inside the case instead of being screwed to it. Softer landing, less plate ring.

Number: One of the three noise sources it damps is plate ring.

On Kwerty: Noise-source matrix

A phantom key press reported when several real keys are held at once on a keyboard with a simple matrix. The opposite of anti-ghosting.

Number: Typically appears with three or more keys held.

The middle letter row, a s d f g h j k l ;. The fingers rest here between strokes and return here after each one. The bumps on F and J locate it by touch.

Number: Eight resting keys, plus g and h for the index fingers.

On Kwerty: Finger guide

Switch sockets that let you pull a switch and push in another without soldering.

Number: A set of 90 switches costs roughly $20–40.

Typing while looking at the keys, usually with two to four fingers. Fast enough for many people after years of practice, and the habit touch typing has to displace.

Number: Commonly 20–35 wpm after years of use.

On Kwerty: The dip

The shape and height of the keycaps across the rows (OEM, Cherry, SA, DSA, XDA are the common named profiles). Changes feel and reach more than most people expect.

Number: Cherry profile is about 1–2 mm lower than OEM.

One press of one key. Speed is often discussed in keystrokes per hour (KPH) in data-entry jobs.

Number: 60 wpm ≈ 18,000 KPH.

A mechanical switch with no bump and no click: force rises smoothly through the travel (Cherry MX Red is the reference). Quiet and smooth; nothing marks the actuation point.

Number: Typically 45 g actuation.

On Kwerty: Force-travel curves

A keyboard or switch with reduced height and travel. Not the same as low-travel: some low-profile boards still travel 3 mm.

Number: Travel around 2.5–3 mm versus 4 mm standard.

On Kwerty: Low-profile vs low-travel

A key mechanism with a spring and a stem that closes an electrical contact partway through its travel. Each key is its own switch.

Number: Rated for 50–100 million presses.

On Kwerty: The cutaway

A keyboard where all keys press onto one printed circuit sheet through rubber domes. Cheap, quiet-ish, and mushy, because the dome must collapse fully to register.

Number: Rated for 5–10 million presses; the default keyboard bundled with most PCs.

On Kwerty: Membrane vs mechanical

The keyboard registers any number of keys held at once, in order. Six-key rollover (6KRO) is the USB default and enough for typing.

Number: 6KRO handles every real word; NKRO matters for chords and games.

A sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. The classic test line for typewriters, fonts and typing.

Number: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" has 35 letters; the shortest natural ones are around 26–30.

On Kwerty: The short pangrams

The share of people below a score. Being at the 75th percentile means three in four scored lower.

Number: Here: 25th 20, 50th 36, 75th 51, 90th 69, 99th 100 wpm.

On Kwerty: Speed chart

The metal or plastic sheet the switches clip into, above the circuit board. It rings when keys bottom out, one of the three sources of keyboard noise.

Number: Steel plates ring most; polycarbonate and FR4 least.

How often the keyboard reports to the computer, in hertz. Irrelevant to typing speed at any common value.

Number: 125 Hz = 8 ms; 1000 Hz = 1 ms. Human keystroke gaps are 60–200 ms.

The standard letter layout, named for its top-left keys. Patented by Sholes, Glidden and Soule in 1878 and unchanged since.

Number: U.S. Patent 207,559, granted 27 August 1878.

On Kwerty: Records ledger

Raw WPM counts everything typed; net WPM subtracts errors, usually one word per uncorrected error. Sites that show a high number are often showing raw.

Number: Kwerty's WPM counts correct characters only, so it is a net figure with no separate penalty.

How consistent the gaps between keystrokes are. Measured as the coefficient of variation of the intervals: lower is smoother. Fast typists are even, not just quick.

Number: The bottleneck finder reports it as rhythm CV.

On Kwerty: Bottleneck finder

Kwerty's modes. Rush is a 30- or 60-second timed run; Survival is endless with a shrinking timer per word; Daily is one seeded run per day shared by everyone.

Number: Survival pressure costs about 12 wpm against Rush for the same player, in the site's data.

On Kwerty: Statistics

Two consecutive letters typed by the same finger ("ed", "ce", "un"). The finger must lift and travel before the second press, so these are the slowest pairs.

Number: The practice-ladder scorecards flag five or more per sentence.

On Kwerty: Scorecard

The low-travel mechanism under laptop and slim keyboards: a rubber dome held by a plastic scissor hinge that keeps the key level.

Number: Travel about 1–1.5 mm.

On Kwerty: Moving off a laptop keyboard

The wire-and-clip mechanism under wide keys (space, Enter, Shift, Backspace) that keeps them level when pressed off-centre. Rattling stabilizers are the most common reason a keyboard feels cheap.

Number: Four to seven per board.

The five-character unit used to compute WPM, spaces and punctuation included, so that "I" and "extraordinary" do not count the same.

Number: Five characters, by convention since the typewriter era.

Speed held over minutes rather than seconds. The figure that matters for work; the one records are least often about.

Number: Barbara Blackburn: 150 wpm for 50 minutes.

On Kwerty: Burst vs sustained

A mechanical switch with a bump at the actuation point and no click (Cherry MX Brown is the reference). The bump lets you feel the register without bottoming out.

Number: Typically 45–55 g actuation.

On Kwerty: Best for long documents

A full-size layout with the number pad removed. Keeps the function row and navigation cluster; brings the mouse about 8–10 cm closer.

Number: 87/88 keys.

On Kwerty: Layout

Typing without looking at the keys, with each finger responsible for a fixed set of keys and returning to the home row between strokes.

Number: Two to four weeks to learn the positions; two to three months to 40 wpm.

On Kwerty: How long it takes

The distance a key moves from rest to bottom.

Number: 4 mm standard mechanical, ~3 mm low-profile, 1–1.5 mm laptop scissor.

On Kwerty: The cutaway

A wrong keystroke. On Kwerty, a typo you correct still counts against accuracy but not against speed, because the clock does not pause.

Number: The lab-report specimen: 4 wrong keys in 95 correct ones → 96% accuracy.

On Kwerty: Lab report

Correct characters typed, divided by five, divided by minutes elapsed. The universal typing-speed unit, and the reason two sites can give different numbers for the same typing: they count characters, errors and time differently.

Number: Median here: 36 wpm. Kwerty counts letters only, not the submitting space, so it reads 15–20% under sites that include it.

On Kwerty: How Kwerty scores you

Compact layouts named for their share of a full-size board. 60% drops the arrows, F-row and navigation; 65% keeps arrows; 75% keeps arrows and the F-row in a tight grid.

Number: A 75% board is about 32 cm wide versus 44 cm full-size.

On Kwerty: Layout