Steno Glossary

My steno glossary.

The content on this page is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0 Universal. Feel free to use it however you'd like :)

Outline:

• Key
• Chord
• Stroke
• Outline
• Translation
  • Affixes
  • Commands
  • Untran
• Entry
• Dictionary
  • Lookup
  • Reverse Lookup
  • Generated
  • Programmatic
  • Modal
• Theory Rule
• Theory
  • Long
  • Short
  • Phonetic
  • Orthographic
  • Full-English
• Conflict
  • Word Boundary Conflict
  • Word-affix Conflicts
  • Homophonic Conflicts
• Writing
• Write-out
• Brief
  • Misstroke
  • Arbitrary
  • Phrase
• Mandatory
• Raw Steno
• Paper Tape/Steno Paper
• Steno Order
• Layout
  • WSI Layout
  • Extended Stenotype Layout
• Steno Engine
  • Plover
• Steno Writer
  • Steno Machine
  • Steno Keyboard
  • Stenotype
• Philly Shift
• Shadowing
• Dropping
• Merge
• Bank
  • Initial
  • Vowel
  • Final
  • Skeleton
  • Unique
• Key Label
• Fingerspelling
• Orthospelling
• Dedicated
• Stenographer
• Space suppression

Key

Noun

An individual key on a steno machine or layout. Analogous to a key on a keyboard.

• Multiple keys may share the same label, with a dash (-) denoting what bank the key is in. For example, in the WSI layout, there are two keys labeled 'S': the initial S- key, and the final -S key. Notice the dash at the start and end of the key.

Chord

Noun

A set, or group, of keys. Chords may denote a sound, letter, affix, or any other part of a translation.

• Chords can be combined to form strokes.
• The difference between a chord and a stroke can often be subtle. See Chords vs. Strokes.
• An example chord is TPH-, which translates to the initial "n" sound (/n/).

Verb

Pressing down all the keys that make up a chord on a steno machine.

• "Chording" is a term outside of steno, which means "pressing multiple keys together at once", rather than one at a time.
• Often used interchangeably with the verb stroke.

Stroke

Noun

A set, or group, or keys pressed together simultaneously.

• If that sounds like what a chord is, that's because chords and strokes are very similar. They are both sets of keys. When you press down a set of keys simultaneously, that is a stroke. A chord is something you can use to build strokes.
• A helpful way to think of it is that when you combine two chords, you get a stroke, but when you combine two strokes, you get an outline
• For a full explanation of the difference between chords and strokes, see Chords vs. Strokes.

Verb

Pressing down all the keys that make up a stroke on a steno machine.

• Often used interchangeably with the verb chord.

Outline

Noun

One or more strokes chorded, or pressed, in sequence.

Translation

Noun

A word, phrase, part of a word or phase, sound, affix, command, punctuation, or any other output.

Verb

To "translate". The translation that an outline maps to is referred to as its "translation".

• For example, the outline KAT translates to "cat".

Entry

Noun

An entry, or dictionary entry, is a mapping between an outline and a translation.

• For example, the outline HOT/TKOG might map to the translation "hotdog".

Dictionary

Noun

A set of outlines with mappings to translations. Dictionaries are made up of dictionary entries.

Lookup

Noun

The process of "looking up" a translation from a given outline in a dictionary.

Reverse Lookup

Noun

The process of "looking up" the set of outlines that map to a given translation in a dictionary.

• Called "reverse lookup" as it is the opposite of regular lookup.
• Each outline that reverse lookup gives you could be looked up to get the translation you gave reverse lookup.

Generated

Adjective

A generated dictionary is not created manually, but instead made using a program that will generate the dictionary automatically.

• Generated dictionaries often require some amount of manual tweaking.
• There's a lot of overlap between generated and programmatic dictionaries. Programmatic dictionaries are also made using a program that generates translations on-the-fly.

Programmatic

Adjective

A dictionary being programmatic means that it translates outlines as you write them, rather having a pre-defined collection of entries.

• See Generated

Modal

Adjective

A dictionary being modal means that it may contain different entries, and thus "do different things", depending on what "mode" you are in.

• Your current mode can change through a mode-switching stroke, based on context, or really for any other reason.

Theory Rule

Noun

A "rule" defining some part of how outlines should be mapped to translations.

Theory

Noun

A set of theory rules that defines how outlines should map to translations.

• Theories usually come with dictionaries, which are usually the theory author's best attempt to follow their theory rules.

Phonetic

Adjective

Describing a theory where words are written how they sound rather than how they are spelled.

Orthographic

Adjective

Describing a theory where words are written how they are spelled rather than how they sound.

Full-English

Adjective

A full-English theory is designed to write all of English, rather than something like numbers, phrasing, movement, etc.

Conflict

Noun

An outline that has multiple valid translations according to your theory.

• There are many different kinds of conflicts that happen for different reasons.

Word Boundary Conflict

Noun

A type of conflict where it is unclear where outlines should start and stop given a sequence of strokes.

Writing

Verb

Steno's equivalent to "typing".

Noun

The act of writing.

Write-out

Noun

An outline that follows all theory rules, and isn't shortened in any way.

Brief

Noun

An "abbreviated" outline, used to reduce the number of strokes required to write a translation.

Verb

To "abbreviate" an outline. To use a translation's brief rather than its write-out.

To create and start using a brief.

Arbitrary

Adjective

An arbitrary outline does not follow the rules of the theory.

Noun

An arbitrary entry.

• Sometimes shortened to "arb".

Phrase

Noun

A type of brief that translates to a sequence of words.

Mandatory

Noun

An outline with no write-out, and only briefs.

Adjective

Having no writeouts, and only briefs.

Raw Steno

Noun

A notation for writing keys, strokes, chords, and outlines in a more human-readable form.

• -T is a key on the final bank of the WSI Layout.
• KWR- is a chord in the initial bank of the WSI Layout.
• KAT is a stroke.
• KEUT/KAT is an outline.

Steno Order

Noun

The order that the keys of a layout are written in with raw steno.

• Steno order is often used in a few ways by theories to make it clear when you can do certain things.

Layout

Noun

A set of keys with labels, often grouped into banks, often with a defined steno order, that can be grouped into chords.

• The most common, and "standard" steno layout is the WSI Layout.

WSI Layout

Noun

The "standard" steno layout.

Extended Stenotype Layout

Noun

An "extended" version of the WSI layout featuring 2 more keys, ^ and +.

Merge

Adjective

Using one chord to mean multiple sounds or spellings in a way that doesn't create many conflicts.

• For example, in the WSI layout, the "x" and "kshun" sounds are merged, meaning one chord is used for both sounds.

Bank

Noun

A logical group of keys on a layout, used to organize keys based on their position.

• The WSI layout has 3 banks: the initial, vowel, and final banks.

Initial

Noun

The bank with the "initial" or "starting" sound or spelling of a word.

Can also refer to a key, chord, stroke, or outline in the initial bank

• E.g. the "c" in "cat"
• Sometimes called the "starter" bank.

Adjective

A key, chord, stroke, or outline in the initial bank.

Vowel

Noun

The bank with the vowel sound or spelling of a word.

Less commonly, can also refer to a key, chord, stroke, or outline in the vowel bank

• E.g. the "a" in "cat"

Adjective

A key, chord, stroke, or outline in the vowel bank.

Final

Noun

The bank with the vowel sound or spelling of a word.

Can also refer to a key, chord, stroke, or outline in the final bank

• E.g. the "t" in "cat"
• Sometimes called the "ender" bank (no relation to Minecraft :p).

Adjective

A key, chord, stroke, or outline in the final bank.

Skeleton

Noun

A stroke that is a skeleton.

Adjective

A skeleton stroke has no keys in the vowel bank

Unique

Adjective

A unique initial, vowel, or final is a chord that is only used for one purpose.

• Most non-english dictionaries, like numbers or phrasing, require a unique chord so they don't conflict with english words.

Fingerspelling

Noun

A method of writing words letter-by-letter using a fingerspelling theory/dictionary.

Adjective

A theory/dictionary where words are written letter-by-letter, allowing you to write words that aren't in your dictionary

Verb

The act of writing with a fingerspelling theory/dictionary

Orthospelling

Noun

A method of writing words multiple letters at a time using an orthospelling theory/dictionary.

Adjective

An orthospelling theory/dictionary is fully orthographic. It's like fingerspelling, but uses the whole layout, or more of the layout than just one fingerspelling bank.

An orthographic theory/dictionary where words are written multiple letters at a time.

Verb

The act of writing using an orthospelling theory or dictionary.

Dedicated

Adjective

A dedicated key, chord, stroke, or outline is reserved for a specific purpose and cannot be used for anything else.