The QWERTY-shortest word

For this puzzle, I define the distance between two letters as the shortest way on a QWERTY keyboard to go from a letter to another with a path.

Examples:

• Q and W are seperated by a distance of 1.
• 2 for E and T.
• 2 for I and N going through J.
• 9 for Z and P.

The average number of letters in the English langage for a word is approximately 4.7.

Can you find:

1. $$S$$: The shortest word in Merriam Webster such that its number of letters is greater than 4.7
2. $$L$$: The longest word in Merriam Webster such that its number of letters is lesser than 4.7

Score is $$L$$ minus $$S$$. Your aim is to get the highest score.

Example:

• Love, $$L=9$$
• Puzzle, $$S=23$$

Score is $$9-23 = -14$$

Here's a score of 24

L = 27 = PAPA
S = 3 = ASSES(S), WEEDS

I'm pretty sure this is optimal, because

You can't get better than PAPA. 9 is the maximum shortest distance between 2 keys, and PAPA has a 9-letter distance between every letter pair. It's theoretically possible to get lower than ASSES(S) or WEEDS, but in the word list I just checked it with, nothing comes up that would match. The word would have to be an obscure format like awwaa, both letters being neighbors on the keyboard.

• @JKHA So two consecutive same letters like "SS" are counted as 1, not 0? – Lukas Rotter Oct 24 '20 at 20:31
• Why would it be 4? A -> S is 1, S -> S is 0, S -> E is 1, E -> S is 1, 3 total – Anthony Ingram-Westover Oct 24 '20 at 20:32
• Oops, sorry, I was looking at my AZERTY keyboard, I'm French, forget about my comment, you have my +1 Lukas :) – JKHA Oct 24 '20 at 20:33
• As this came up today, it made me think of see-er, which is either 2 or large, depending on the hyphen. – Joel Rondeau May 27 at 22:57

A score of 41.

L = 44 = ʻaʻama - name for the Hawai'ian crab Graspus tenuicrustatus. Unfortunately, this isn't listed in Merriam Webster. But because other Hawai'ian words, such as ʻaʻā are included, I figured this would be acceptable. Also, the ʻokinas need to be substituted with apostrophes.
S = 3 = assess

Or a very abstract score of 140.

L = 143 = ʻAʻAMA - This time, it is typed in unicode.
SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 2 -> 8 -> 8 -> SPACE -> SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 0 -> 4 -> 1 -> SPACE -> SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 2 -> 8 -> 8 -> SPACE -> SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 0 -> 4 -> 1 -> SPACE -> SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 0 -> 4 -> D -> SPACE -> SHIFT -> CTRL -> U -> 0 -> 0 -> 4 -> 1 -> SPACE
S = 3 = assess - Sadly, MW doesn't acknowledge the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre.

• Including the hawaiian words might be legit. Counting the okinas as apostrophes for distance on the keyboard while not counting them for letter count almost certainly isn't. – Ben Barden May 27 at 19:26
• @BenBarden ʻOkinas are diacritics, the same as tildes and cedillas. If ñ and ç are one letter, then ʻa should be as well. Also, a smart apostrophe is nearly indistinguishable to the human eye ( ʻ vs ‘ ), and considering most QWERTY keyboards don't have an ʻokina key, I figured that it would be an acceptable substitute. – Nilster May 28 at 4:07
• But you can't type ñ and ç on a QWERTY keybaord, so that isn't a valid argument for it being one letter. – rhavelka May 28 at 13:07
• @rhavelka On my QWERTY keyboard, I can obtain ç with option+c and n by holding n then pressing 1. – A username May 28 at 20:35
• I have a Mac... – Florian F May 28 at 21:57