11. A handheld electronic device comprising: a processor unit comprising a processor and a memory having stored therein a plurality of objects including a plurality of word objects; the memory further having stored therein routines which, when executed on the processor, cause the handheld electronic device to perform operations 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.
11. A handheld electronic device comprising: a processor unit comprising a processor and a memory having stored therein a plurality of objects including a plurality of word objects; the memory further having stored therein routines which, when executed on the processor, cause the handheld electronic device to perform operations 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. 20. The handheld electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise: detecting an additional input; determining that no word object corresponds with a character permutation of the ambiguous input plus the additional input; and outputting at least one character permutation of the ambiguous input plus the additional input as at least an artificial variant.