“One stroke” doesn't tell you how many keys.

Here are all 100 words. Check the forms yourself.

The homepage shows six examples. Here is the complete paired list—including the words where BREVITY uses more keys.

I'm Tom Fernicola. These are the Magnum and BREVITY forms in the two 100-word working lists I supplied for this comparison. Every form shown is one stroke. We've expanded abbreviations on both sides into physical keys so you can see what each form contains.

The supplied lists do not document how the words were selected. Read the tally as a description of these particular 100 word pairs.

Using the first-listed form for each word, BREVITY uses fewer keys on 66 words, Magnum on 6, and 28 have equal counts. It isn't a speed test or a measurement of fatigue, accuracy, or what you would save across a day's reporting.

A form you already use may differ. Compare the actual keys and try a change in connected writing before deciding whether it belongs in your dictionary.

The complete list

Numbers are physical keys per stroke. When the supplied BREVITY list offers two alternatives, both appear below. Totals use the first one consistently.

The counting choices are part of the comparison.

Each physical key counts once in a stroke. Left and right keys are distinct. A hyphen is notation, not an extra key. Abbreviations are expanded for both lists: I means E+U, for example, and initial L means H+R. A short printed abbreviation does not necessarily mean fewer keys.

Two alternatives deserve attention. For understand, both BREVITY forms use four keys. For file, the first BREVITY form is identical to Magnum's seven-key form; the supplied alternative, *FL, uses three. Choosing that alternative changes the tally to 67 BREVITY advantages, 6 Magnum advantages, and 27 equal counts. The first-listed rule keeps that choice visible.

The six first-listed words using fewer Magnum keys are understand, believe, building, said, went, and request. They deserve the same examination as the examples favoring BREVITY.

Equal counts also deserve a closer look. For where, WR- and W-R each use two keys, but distribute them differently between the hands. Counting keys tells you one thing. Looking at the actual combination tells you more.

The list alone also doesn't tell you how a form translates in context. BREVITY's supplied forms for both subpoena and request are KW-F; the files do not explain how that shared form is handled. Check the dictionary behavior along with the movement.

What these examples establish

They show the physical keys in these particular one-stroke forms. They let you check the count and bring the comparison to your own machine.

The lists give each word one place in the table. They do not say how often it occurs in your work. They also do not score coordination, recall, translation, or outcomes. The difficulty scores discussed in The Science of Steno are a separate analysis; these raw counts do not reproduce those scores.

Before you accept “shorter,” ask to see what you're being asked to press.

Explore BREVITY: Write Simply — consider changes to the writing you already use.

Explore BREVITY: The Theory — see the instruction for learning from the beginning.

Sources: Tom Fernicola's “Magnum 100 Words” and “BREVITY_100_Words_ACCURATE_1” working files, with his September 27, 2026 clarifications. The supplied files do not identify original Magnum edition/page references. “Magnum” here denotes the forms in that supplied list; this is not a claim that every Magnum writer uses them or that no alternatives exist.