1. A method of disambiguating an input into a handheld electronic device having stored therein a plurality of objects including a plurality of word objects, the method comprising: detecting an ambiguous input; outputting a number of first character permutations of the ambiguous input that each correspond to one of the word objects; and determining that the first character permutations are fewer in quantity than a predetermined number and, responsive thereto, outputting a number of second character permutations of the ambiguous input that each correspond to an artificial variant.