A typo (one-letter keyboarding mistake, typewriter mistake) that the spell-check function cannot pick up because the word is spelled correctly -- although not for the word you wanted to key in. They are called "atomic typos" because the change of just one letter completely changes the word, although it remains spelled correctly in terms of the spell check function
Examples:

Chris, instead of Christ
war, instead of was
bite, instead of byte
massage, instead of message

Quote: "Wow, the newspaper had an atomic typo on the front page, the writer meant to say "message" but what appeared in the article was "massage". Oops! That's a real atomic typo, and there's very little one can do to stop them!"
by PRwiz101 May 15, 2009
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