What is the meaning of "atleast" and is it different from "at least"?

Question

I don't think atleast is an actual word, but I've found many instances of its usage. A simple google search for atleast reveal 13,100,000 hits.

What is the meaning of atleast and is it different from at least?

Answer 1

It is incorrect to write 'at least' as one word.

(You have to be careful using Google to justify things: (1) people make mistakes, and (2) sometimes Google tries to be smarter than you, e.g. it will actually search for the corrected version, not the misspelling you entered. The latter doesn't seem to be the case here, it's just something to keep in mind.)

[I just did my own Google query, and of the top results for "atleast", three are this same question asked on various forums, and one is the title of a page, formatted with "at" much smaller than "least" – so visually it's two words, despite appearing as a single word to a search spider.]

Answer 2

I hold the view that 'atleast' does in fact a have a valid meaning distinct from 'at least', when used properly. Allow me to explain the proper (and by extension, improper) use with an example.

On the closed question Help page for this SE, in the section about closing questions, it starts by stating

Users with 3000 reputation can cast up to 24 close votes per day.

which leaves a slight syntactic ambiguity in the clause "with 3000 reputation": does it mean a reputation of exactly or a minimum of 3,000? Now pragmatically (given broader context and some basic sense), the former would be idiotic, ergo the latter sense must be what is meant; however, this is not always the case.

So I see two ways to explicitly convey a sense of 'minimum' with "at least" and "atleast" respectively, though suggesting different meanings. Used with the space,

Users with at least 3000 reputation can cast up to 24 close votes per day.

strictly speaking means that the "minimum requirement" is "[yielding] 3000 reputation", i.e. no other factors than 'reputation' matter (but any extant simply enough could be added to a list separated each by the same of a comma or possibly semicolon, all to be covered under the same adverbial construct of "with at least .."); whereas condensing the adverb in question to a single word,

Users with atleast 3000 reputation can cast up to 24 close votes per day.

suggests that the adverb modifies a single aspect, namely the (ostensibly adjective) '3000', i.e. not even does the domain of consideration extend past 'reputation'. This latter use is roughly synonymous with

Users with a minimum of 3000 reputation can cast up to 24 close votes per day.

in that it conveys that "[If able to cast up to 24 cl.., then] reputation ≥ 3000", same as does the 'atleast' usage (whereby the parallel less-than-or-equal-to meaning could be conveyed likewise quasi-equivalently by either "atmost" or "a maximum of").

How they ("max xor min of" vs "at least" or "atleast) differ, however, is in emphasis (and number of syllables) as well as grammar: having a minimum or maximum of something suggests some importance on there actually being a quantity-confinement (in and of itself, with this existence in the foreground), as contrasted to (and shifted somewhat from) more specifically on just that boundary (with the fact that the confinement itself exists being in the background) as expressed with "atleast". Grammatically there is distinction, also. Inclusion of either "at least" or "atleast" (compared to the qualntifier being absent) does not alter operative words following it (or preceding it if using a ", at least" construct) with respect to their role in the sentence (instead it just modifies one or more of them in some way); as compared to changing the clause to ".. a minimum of.." which read literally (aloud requiring a few more spoken syllables) actually does alter the roles.

For what it's worth, the way I would have conveyed the intended message of the individual sentene in reference is as follows:

Users with current reputation of atleast 3,000 can cast up-to twentyfour Close votes daily.

which at the expense of two additional words (technically only one, because shortened "per day" to "daily" since the exact calendar definement was not provided there anyway; and the "currently" instead of "presently" since a continuum is suggested with "per day", and presumably more accurate than without the qualifier whatever since many if not all privileges across the Network do get deferred upon dropping below respective threshholds) adds much clarity.