The illegibility of doctors\u27 handwriting has spawned innumerable jokes. Jottings that seem illegible and unintelligible may actually be technical terms that mimic commoner words. A cursory scan of Stedman\u27s Medical Dictionary (1976) uncovered scores of seemingly-misspelled words. An abridged collection of these is given below, where each scientific term is followed by a brief definition, with its common look-alike in parentheses
