The longest word you can type on the first row
for this kind of thing, aside from of course &#x2F;usr&#x2F;share&#x2F;dict&#x2F;words or &#x2F;usr&#x2F;share&#x2F;dict&#x2F;spanish, i commonly use a word list sorted by occurrences in the british national corpus which i keep at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;canonical.org&#x2F;~kragen&#x2F;sw&#x2F;wordlist" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;canonical.org&#x2F;~kragen&#x2F;sw&#x2F;wordlist</a><p>this allows you to, among other things, tune the comprehensiveness&#x2F;accuracy tradeoff to your liking for a particular task by cutting the list off at a given point<p>probably i should download the google 1-grams now that i have a bigger disk<p>anyway<p><pre><code>   $ grep &#x27; [qwertyuiop]*$&#x27; ~&#x2F;wordlist | perl -lane &#x27;print length $F[1], &quot; $F[1]&quot;&#x27; | sort -n
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indeed suggests only<p><pre><code>    10 perpetuity
    10 proprietor
    10 repertoire
    10 typewriter
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possibly a more practical problem is, what are the most common words you can type entirely with the left hand while your other hand is on the mouse†; &#x27;redraw&#x27; was a significant one with early versions of autocad<p><pre><code>    $ grep &#x27; [qwertasdfgzxcvb]*$&#x27; ~&#x2F;wordlist | head
    2150885 a
    923975 was
    664780 be
    478178 at
    470949 are
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uh that&#x27;s somewhat boring<p><pre><code>    $ grep &#x27; [qwertasdfgzxcvb]*$&#x27; ~&#x2F;wordlist | perl -ane &#x27;print &quot;$F[1] &quot; if length $F[1] &gt; 6&#x27; | fmt | head
    greater started effects address average regarded created treated affected
    greatest streets readers afterwards referred database degrees dressed
    arrested attract decades attracted addressed stressed stewart awarded
    targets estates abstract assessed terrace reserve reverse barbara reserves
    careers defeated dragged grabbed creates greeted secrets bastard extract
    edwards detected deserve affects traders adverse retreat addresses rewards
    aggregate decrease scattered breasts referee databases deserted actress
    debates deserves reversed deserved defects reserved fastest rewarded
    steward battered erected deceased exaggerated cassette exceeded servers
    warfare extracts drawers stresses asserted reacted sweater regards stabbed
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that&#x27;s a bit better.  how about words you can type alternating the two hands, so you can type faster<p><pre><code>    $ egrep &#x27; [^qwertasdfgzxcvb]?([qwertasdfgzxcvb][^qwertasdfgzxcvb])*[qwertasdfgzxcvb]?$&#x27; ~&#x2F;wordlist | perl -ane &#x27;print &quot;$F[1] &quot; if length $F[1] &gt; 6&#x27; | fmt | head -4
    problem problems england chairman alright element ancient visible penalty
    quantity visitor signals amendment claudia bicycle authentic antibody
    malaysia naughty dickens entitlement antique paisley rituals auditor
    endowment blanche chairmen siemens chaotic suspend uruguay mcleish
</code></pre>
it&#x27;s a curious experience to touch-type a sequence of these words because after a while you notice that something is unusual.  the one-handed words are a bit more conspicuous.  try typing &#x27;a better career award as edward created database facts after we agreed we stared at dear steve&#x27; into the comment box, it&#x27;s super weird<p>of course the bnc has some built-in biases which dramatically understate the frequency of certain words<p><pre><code>    $ grep fuck ~&#x2F;wordlist
    2568 fucking
    1236 fuck
    158 fucked
    53 fucker
    23 fucks
    20 fuckers
    13 motherfucker
    5 motherfuckers
    5 fuckin
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&#x27;ngl&#x27; appears but only 5 times.  &#x27;yeet&#x27; doesn&#x27;t occur at all<p>______<p>† mouse?