Subtly dangerous - Wordsmith.org

Wordsmith.org

I need a word, y'all. It can be either an adjective or a noun/allusion.

I'm firing off an angry E-mail to the editor of our local newspaper. I'm fed up with the typos, not particularly those in the copy (every newspaper commits typos), but the almost-daily ones in the headlines!! Some of these are obviously spell-check generated, and I want to point that out and add that spell check is _____? The word/phrase I want means something that looks innocent or helpful or the surface, but deep down is/can be just the opposite.

meretricious

A slippery slope

A snare and a delusion

Fatally flawed

Simplistic

Unthinking robotic moron (any combination)

Not an answer but maybe a guide to thinking about this question:

"The pertiest little desert flower'll slip a knife in you if don't watch out."

insidiously inaccurate?

Spell checker = error compounder

spell check is _____?

perfidious to her own art
A deceptive Janus
A steganographic challenge

Nefarious? Not really accurate for your intent, but kinda appropriate, especially considering the type of spell checker we have here.

Deceptive?
Unreliable?
Illusory?

Just a few ideas for you.

specious?
" Some [serpent(ine spellchecker)s] specious and beautiful to the eye.
--Bp.
Richardson."

'...that spell check is _____ merely suggesting an alternative which may be neither accurate nor correct.

(Why use one word when 11 will suffice!!)

stales

Or why not just be straighforward about it:

Just because somebody you knew got you a cake job as editor right out of journalism school, and you can't spell yourself worth a plug nickel, doesn't mean you can continually foist your idiocy upon the public. Oh, and by the way, spellcheckers betray you."

That might do it.

NO excuse for being too f**king lazy to reach across the desk to the dictionary.

If I had my way spell check would be rooted from the memory of every computer in the world; anyone who retained an illicit copy would be subject to immediate summary execution with the body being hanged from the nearest light pole with a sign around the neck reading "I was too lazy to be allowed to live."

Other than that I don't have any feelings on this subject.

Dear TEd: infinitely superior to a spell checker is my ten buck Webster's New World Dictionaru CD.
I have it minimized, up with a click, type in the first few letters I am sure or, and get a list of
next ten words, where I can recognize the one I was doubtful about. I miss many of my typos,
but I avoid lots of misspellings.

The spell check is____ deceptively vile.

SpellCheck is not a grammar.

Spell checkers do nothing but look words up in a list. If there's no match it figures it's a misspelling. It's good for catching little things like simple typos, but it won't find wrong homonyms. Grammar checkers are also good for simple little mistakes, like Paris in the the spring. There's nothing wrong with spell checkers or grammar checkers; it's the unqualified reliance on them that causes problems.

Well, the Casey's Snow Day (odd name, that) site wouldn't cooperate, and I had no worthwhile response on the other reverse dictionary I found, but if this'll be any help, what I typed in was: false sense of security.