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Pronounced kwer-tee, refers to the arrangement of keys on a standard English computer keyboard (sometimes called the Sholes keyboard after its inventor), as opposed to {Dvorak} or foreign-language layouts (e.g. "keyboard AZERTY" in french-speaking countries) or a {space-cadet keyboard} or {APL keyboard}. The name QWERTY derives from the first six characters on the top alphabetic line of the keyboard.

The QWERTY layout is a fine example of a 'fossil'.  It is sometimes said that it was designed to slow down the typist, but this is wrong; it was designed to allow *faster* typing - under a constraint now long obsolete. In early typewriters, fast typing using nearby type-bars jammed the mechanism (there is no evidence to support this assertion, except that the arrangement does, in fact, inhibit fast typing).

So Sholes fiddled the layout to separate the letters of many common digraphs (he did a far from perfect job, though; "th", "tr", "ed", and "er", for example, each use two nearby keys). Also, putting the letters of "typewriter" on one line allowed it to be typed with particular speed and accuracy for {demos}. The jamming problem was essentially solved soon afterward by a suitable use of springs, but the keyboard layout lives on.