When does a spelling variant become a legitimate word? Examples: krazy (crazy), sync (synchronous), bot (robot).
When the dictionaries add it. When do dictionaries add a word? When it becomes sufficiently popular in culture that it warrants being recognized as a legit word in its own right.
When people look it up frequently, a dictionary needs to say something about it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Does the spelling variant have exactly the same meaning as the original spelling? In that case should it just be noted as a variant whereas if it is used in different contexts and has different associations then it might deserve its own listing.
Up until the advent of the *searchable* inline dictionary, that would have been problematic, since they're ordered alphabetically. For instance, before searchability, no one would have found 'bot' if they didn't already know to look for 'robot'.
I would guess should have However when a words spelt exactly the same can have different meanings who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
