Glossary
QWERTY
QWERTY is the standard letter arrangement on English keyboards, named for the first six letters of the top row. Christopher Latham Sholes devised it in the early 1870s for typewriters, and it is still the layout most people type on, even though faster layouts have been proposed.
Updated October 16, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called QWERTY layout, QWERTY keyboard.
QWERTY is the letter arrangement on most English keyboards. The name comes from the first six letters of the top letter row: Q, W, E, R, T and Y. Christopher Latham Sholes devised the layout in the early 1870s 1, when the machine it was built for was a typewriter.
The layout was built for typewriters and outlasted them
The arrangement became popular with the Remington No. 2 of 1878 2. Today it is the default on most English computer keyboards, although the typewriter it was designed for has long gone. That persistence is the main reason to understand QWERTY: most typists have already learned it, so switching to another layout costs time.
QWERTY is the baseline in typing speed comparisons
A controlled study on an iPhone found that English text typed on the built-in QWERTY keyboard reached 52 words per minute, against 153 words per minute by speech 3. The speed counted the finished text, including time spent correcting errors. The study used short phrases in a quiet lab, so it does not measure long documents.
That comparison measures the input method, not the layout. Speech does not use the keyboard at all, so the gap shows how much typing limits the pace of writing, whatever the letters are arranged in.
Alternatives to QWERTY exist, and their speed claims are disputed
Dvorak was patented as an application in 1932 4, and it places the most common letters on the home row. Colemak is a newer layout that keeps many QWERTY keys in place. Both were designed to be faster, but the evidence is weaker than their supporters suggest. Read our entry on Dvorak and our guide to keyboard layouts compared before you decide to switch.
What QWERTY means for dictation
Dictation does not depend on the keyboard layout. When you speak, the words appear on screen without any key presses, so a dictated draft is the same on QWERTY, Dvorak or Colemak. If you still type much of your writing, the layout you already know is the one that matters most for speed. For a comparison of the two methods, see our guide to speaking versus typing speed.
Related terms
- Dvorak Simplified Keyboard: an alternative layout that places common letters on the home row.
- Colemak: a newer alternative layout for English.
- Home row: the middle row of keys, where the fingers rest.
- Words per minute (WPM): the unit used to report typing and speaking speed.
Guides and questions that cover it
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterThe topic this term belongs to
- Articulation rateArticulation rate is the number of syllables a speaker produces per second, leaving out pauses. It measures how fast the speech itself comes out, so it is usually faster than the overall speaking rate that counts every pause.
- Characters per minute (CPM)Characters per minute (CPM) is the number of characters typed in one minute, counting spaces and punctuation. Words per minute is the same count divided by five, so a typist at 50 WPM enters 250 characters per minute.
- ColemakColemak is an alternative English keyboard layout, introduced in 2006 and designed for efficient, comfortable touch typing. Its supporters describe it as the third most popular layout for English touch typing, after QWERTY and Dvorak, but that ranking has no stated method.
- Dvorak Simplified KeyboardThe Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is an alternative English keyboard layout that places the most common letters on the home row. Dvorak and Dealey applied for a patent on it in 1932, but the studies that claimed it was faster than QWERTY have been criticized, and the evidence for a speed gain is weak.
- Home rowThe home row is the middle row of keys on a keyboard, where the fingers rest when you touch type. On a QWERTY keyboard it holds A, S, D, F for the left hand and J, K, L and semicolon for the right, and every other key is reached by moving a finger away from it and back.
- Hunt and peckHunt and peck is a typing method in which the typist finds each key by sight and presses it with one or two fingers, usually the index fingers. It is also called two-finger typing, and it differs from touch typing, which relies on memorized key positions and the home row.
- Keystroke dynamicsKeystroke dynamics is the identification of a person from the rhythm of their typing, using the timing between key presses as a pattern much like a handwritten signature. It is a behavioral biometric, so it supports identity checks through statistical matching rather than proving who typed.
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC)Keystrokes per character (KSPC) is the average number of keystrokes a text entry method needs to produce one character of text. A basic QWERTY keyboard scores 1, methods that need more presses score above 1, and word prediction can score below 1.
- Keystrokes per hour (KPH)Keystrokes per hour (KPH) is the number of key presses made in one hour. It is the standard unit for numeric data entry, where many jobs require 8,000 or 10,000 keystrokes per hour, and it counts keys rather than words.
- Oral reading fluency (ORF)Oral reading fluency (ORF) measures how many words a reader gets right in one minute of reading a passage aloud. Schools record the result as words correct per minute (WCPM), which subtracts the words read wrongly from the total.
- Rollover typingRollover, or key rollover, is the number of key presses a keyboard can detect when they overlap. Two-key rollover reliably detects only two keys at once, and a matrix keyboard without diodes can register a ghost key when three keys are pressed together.
- StenotypeA stenotype, also called a steno machine, is a chorded keyboard that stenographers use for shorthand, pressing several keys together to produce a syllable or word. The NCRA's court reporter skills test sets a speed of 225 words per minute, and voice writing is a newer method that uses speech recognition instead.
Pages that use this term
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterTopic
- Touch Typing: What It Is and How to Learn ItGuide
- Phone Typing Speed: How Fast People Type on PhonesGuide
- Keyboard Layouts Compared: QWERTY, Dvorak and ColemakGuide
- Can you touch type with one hand?Question
- How do blind people type on a computer?Question
- How do you learn touch typing in Russian?Question
- Is Colemak worth learning?Question
- Is Dvorak faster than QWERTY?Question
- What is the fastest typing speed ever recorded?Question
- Why are keyboards in QWERTY order?Question
- ColemakGlossary
- Dvorak Simplified KeyboardGlossary
- Home rowGlossary
- Input method editor (IME)Glossary
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC)Glossary