A*
(GCSE) not A-star

A&E
accident and emergency

abattoir

Abbas, Mahmoud
former Palestinian prime minister, popularly known as Abu Mazen

abbeys
are, like cathedrals, capped up: Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, etc

abbreviations and acronyms
Do not use full points in abbreviations, or spaces between initials: US, mph, eg, 4am, lbw, No 10, PJ O'Rourke, WH Smith, etc.

Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters: BBC, VAT etc; if it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) spell out with initial capital, eg Nasa, Nato, unless it can be considered to have entered the language as an everyday word, such as awol, laser and, more recently, asbo, pin number and sim card.

If an abbreviation or acronym that readers may not immediately recognise is to be used more than once, put it in brackets at first mention, eg Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), seasonal affective disorder (Sad). This saves people having to search back through the article to find the original reference.

Use common sense, however: it is not necessary to spell out well-known ones, such as EU, UN, CIA, FBI, CD, Nasa, etc.

Cap up single letters in such expressions as C-list, F-word, "the word assassin contains four Ss", etc

aborigines, aboriginal
lc when referring to indigenous populations

Aborigines, Aboriginal
cap up when referring to native Australians

abscess

absorb
but absorption

abysmal

abyss

a cappella

Acas
Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, at first mention; thereafter just Acas
acas.org.uk

accents
Use on French, German, Spanish and Irish Gaelic words (but not anglicised French words such as cafe, apart from exposé, paté, résumé, roué); people's names, in whatever language, should also be given appropriate accents

Accenture
formerly Andersen Consulting

access
has been known as contact since the 1989 Children Act

accommodate, accommodation

accordion

achilles heel, achilles tendon

acknowledgment
not acknowledgement

acres
Use hectares, with acres in brackets, rounded up: eg the field measured 25 hectares (62 acres)
you multiply hectares by 2.47 to convert to acres, or acres by 0.4 to convert to hectares

acronyms
see abbreviations and acronyms

act
uc when using full name, eg Criminal Justice Act 1998, Official Secrets Act; but lc on second reference, eg "the act", and when speaking in more general terms, eg "we need a radical freedom of information act"; bills remain lc until passed into law

acting
always lc: acting prime minister, acting committee chair, etc

actor
for both male and female actors; do not use actress except when in name of award, eg Oscar for best actress; one 27-year-old actor contacted the Guardian to say "actress" has acquired a faintly pejorative tinge and she wants people to call her actor (except for her agent, who should call her often).

As always, use common sense: a piece about the late film director Carlo Ponti was edited to say that in his early career he was "already a man with a good eye for pretty actors" ... As the readers' editor pointed out in the subsequent clarification: "This was one of those occasions when the word 'actresses' might have been used"

AD, BC
AD goes before the date (AD64), BC goes after (300BC); both go after the century, eg second century AD, fourth century BC

adaptation
not adaption

adapter
someone who adapts; adaptor plug

addendum
plural addendums not addenda

addresses
119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER

Adidas
initial cap

administration
the Clinton administration, etc

admissible, inadmissible
not -able

admit
Take care; as the great Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee put it: "No story is fair if reporters hide their biases and emotions behind such subtly pejorative words as refused, despite, admit and massive"

adoption
Mention that children are adopted only when relevant to the story: a reader points out that "explicitly calling attention to adoptions in this way suggests that adoption is not as good, and not as real a relationship, as having a child normally".
So say biological father, biological family rather than "real father", "real family", etc

Adrenalin
TM; a brand of adrenaline

adrenaline
hormone that increases heart rate and blood pressure, extracted from animals or synthesised for medical uses

adverbs
Do not use hyphens after adverbs ending in -ly, eg a hotly disputed penalty, a constantly evolving newspaper, genetically modified food, etc; but hyphens are needed with short and common adverbs, eg ever-forgiving family, ill-prepared report, much-loved character, well-founded suspicion

adviser
not advisor

advocate
member of the Scottish bar (not a barrister)

Adzharia
disputed region of Georgia

aeroplane
use airplane

affect/effect
exhortations in the style guide had no effect (noun) on the number of mistakes; the level of mistakes was not affected (verb) by exhortations in the style guide; we hope to effect (verb) a change in this

affidavit
a written declaration made on oath, so "sworn affidavit" is tautologous

affinity
with or between, not to or for

Afghans
people; Afghanis currency of Afghanistan

aficionado
plural aficionados

African-Caribbean
not Afro-Caribbean

Afrikaans
language; Afrikaner person

afterlife, aftermath

ageing

ages
Gordon Brown, 56 (not "aged 56"); little Johnny, four; the woman was in her 20s (but twentysomething, thirtysomething, etc)

aggravate
to make worse, not to annoy

aggro
despite the once popular terrace chant "A, G, A-G-R, A-G-R-O: agro!"

AGM

ahead of
avoid: use before or in advance of

aide-de-camp
plural aides-de-camp (aide is a noun)

aide-memoire
plural aide-memoires (aide is a verb)

Aids
acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but normally no need to spell out.

Don't use such terms as "Aids victims" or someone "suffering from Aids", language that in the words of one reader is "crass, inaccurate and reinforces stigma", implying helplessness and inviting pity; "people with Aids" (or "living with Aids") is preferable

airbase, aircraft, aircrew, airdrop, airlift, airmail, airplane, airstrip, airtime

aircraft carrier
no hyphen

air fares, air force, air raid, air show, air strike

Air Force One
US president's jet

air hostess
see cabin attendant

airports
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted (normally no need to say airport); Liverpool John Lennon airport, Schiphol airport, etc

air vice-marshal

AKA
also known as

akimbo
see arms akimbo

al-
(note lc and hyphen) before an Arabic name means "the" so try to avoid writing "the al- ..." where possible
see Arabic names

al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade

al-Assad, Bashar
Syrian politician

Alastair or Alistair?
Alastair Campbell
Alastair Cook (Essex and England cricketer)
Alastair Hetherington

Alistair Cooke (former BBC and Guardian journalist)
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean
Alistair McGowan

Aleister Crowley

Albright, Madeleine
former US secretary of state

Alcott, Louisa May
(1832-88) American author of Little Women
alcottweb.com

A-levels

Al Fayed, Mohamed
owner of Harrods (Fayed after first mention; Mr Fayed if honorific is needed); the son who died in Paris in 1997 was Dodi Fayed

Alfonsín, Raúl
former Argentinian president

Ali, Muhammad

alibi
being somewhere else; not synonymous with excuse

alice band
as worn by Alice in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871), and more recently David Beckham

A-list
etc, but to refer to "C-list celebrities" and its variations has become tedious. An edition of G2 referred to "D-list celebrities" and, less than hilariously, in a separate piece about the same reality TV show, "Z-list celebrities"

Aliyev, Ilham
president of Azerbaijan

al-Jazeera

Allah
Arabic for "the God". Both words refer to the same concept: there is no major difference between God in the Old Testament and Allah in Islam. Therefore it makes sense to talk about "God" in an Islamic context and to use "Allah" in quotations or for literary effect

Allahu Akbar
"God is greatest"
Islamic terms

all comers

Allende, Isabel
Chilean author, niece of Salvador
isabelallende.com

Allende, Salvador
Chilean president, overthrown and killed in 1973

allies
second world war allies, etc

all mouth and trousers
not "all mouth and no trousers"

allot, allotted

all right
is right; "alright" is not all right (but note the Who song, much loved by generations of headline writers, was The Kids are Alright)

All Souls College
Oxford, no apostrophe

al-Majid, General Ali Hassan
member of Saddam Hussein's revolutionary command council, nicknamed Chemical Ali for his atrocities against Iraq's Kurds and sentenced to death in 2007 (Majid on second reference)

al-Maliki, Nouri
(not Nuri) became prime minister of Iraq in 2006

Almo
arm's-length management organisation

Almodóvar, Pedro
Spanish film-maker

alone
often redundant

al-Qaida
Osama bin Laden's organisation; it means "the base"

alsatian
dog; Alsatian person from Alsace

also
is also often redundant

AltaVista

alter ego
We have been known to spell it "altar ego" (to be used only as a headline on a story about an arrogant bishop)

alternative
normally a choice between two courses of action; if there are more than two, option or choice may be preferred; beware the trend to use "alternate" instead of alternative: in a piece about French politics we wrote "in this juddering alternate reality ..."

alumnus
plural alumni

Alzheimer's disease

AM (assembly member)
member of the Welsh assembly, eg Rhodri Morgan AM

Amazon
normally no need for com or co.uk

ambassador
lc, eg the British ambassador to Washington; "the ambassador's receptions are noted in society for their host's exquisite taste"

ambience
not ambiance

America, Americans
although like most people we use to mean the United States and its citizens, we should remember that America includes all of North and South America

American Civil Liberties Union
not American Civil Rights Union

American English
In general, use British English spellings: secretary of defence, Labour Day, World Trade Centre, etc; exceptions are placenames such as Ann Arbor, Pearl Harbor

American universities
Take care: "University of X" is not the same as "X University"; most states have two large public universities, eg University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University, University of Illinois/Illinois State University, etc

Do not call Johns Hopkins University "John Hopkins" or Stanford University "Stamford"
alphabetical list

America's Cup

Amhrán na bhFiann
Irish national anthem

Amicus
trade union formed by a merger between the AEEU and MSF, now part of Unite after a further merger with the TGWU

amid
not amidst

amok
not amuck

among
not amongst

among or between?
Contrary to popular myth, between is not limited to two parties. It is appropriate when the relationship is essentially reciprocal: fighting between the many peoples of Yugoslavia, treaties between European countries. Among belongs to distributive relationships: shared among, etc

ampersand
Use in company names when the company does: Marks & Spencer, P&O

anaesthetic

analysis
plural analyses

ancestors
precede descendants; we frequently manage to get them the wrong way round

Andalucía

Anderson shelter
not Andersen

anglicise, anglophile, anglophone

annex
verb

annexe
noun

Ansaphone
TM; use answering machine or answerphone

antenna
(insect) plural antennae
(radio) plural antennas

anti-ballistic missile treaty

antichrist

anticipate
take action in expectation of; not synonymous with expect

anticlimax

antidepressants

antihero

antipodean, antipodes

antisemitic, antisemitism

antisocial

anti-war

any more
two words

apex
plural apexes

apostrofly
"an insect that lands at random on the printed page, depositing an apostrophe wherever it lands" according to the Guardian's former readers' editor

 


apostrophes
Indicate a missing letter or letters (can't, we'd) or a possessive (David's book).

Some shops use an apostrophe, wrongly, to indicate a plural ("pea's"), but will generally omit the apostrophe when one is actually required ("new seasons asparagus"), a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the greengrocer's (or grocer's) apostrophe. Try to avoid this.

Contractions can affect the tone of a piece and make it appear informal and even inelegant: "what's more" may work in a lighthearted column but "what is more" may be more appropriate for a leading article.

The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones's, James's), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps: Mephistopheles', Waters', Hedges' rather than Mephistopheles's, Waters's, Hedges's.

Plural nouns that do not end in S take an apostrophe and S in the possessive: children's games, old folk's home, people's republic etc.

Phrases such as butcher's knife, collector's item, cow's milk, goat's cheese, pig's blood, hangman's noose, writer's cramp etc are treated as singular.

Use apostrophes in phrases such as two days' time, 12 years' imprisonment and six weeks' holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in nine months pregnant or three weeks old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as pregnant or old) -if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day's time, one month pregnant.

Finally, if anyone tries to tell you that apostrophes don't matter and we'd be better off without them, consider these four phrases, each of which means something different:
my sister's friend's investments
my sisters' friends' investments
my sisters' friend's investments
my sister's friends' investments

appal, appalling

apparatchik

appendix
plural appendices

Apple Computer
not Computers; former name of Apple

apples
lc: cox's orange pippin, golden delicious, granny smith, etc

appraise
to estimate worth

apprise
to inform

aquarium
plural aquariums

Arab
Both a noun and an adjective, and the preferred adjective when referring to Arab things in general, eg Arab history, Arab traditions. Arabic usually refers to the language and literature: "the Arabic press" means newspapers written in Arabic; while "the Arab press" would include newspapers produced by Arabs in other languages.

There is no simple definition of an Arab. At an international level, the 22 members of the Arab League can safely be described as Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. At a human level, there are substantial groups within those countries - the Berbers of north Africa and the Kurds, for example - who do not regard themselves as Arabs

Arabic names
Though Arabic has only three vowels - a, i and u - it has several consonants which have no equivalent in the Roman alphabet. For instance, there are two kinds of s, d and t. There are also two kinds of glottal sound. This means there are at least 32 ways of writing the Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy's name in English, and a reasonable argument can be made for adopting almost any of them. With no standard approach to transliteration agreed by the western media, we must try to balance consistency, comprehensibility and familiarity - which often puts a strain on all three.

Typically, Arabs have at least three names. In some cases the first or second name may be the one that is most used, and this does not imply familiarity. Often Arabs also have familiar names that have no connection with the names on their identity cards; a man might become known after the birth of his first son as "Abu Ahmad", and a woman as "Umm Ahmad", the father or mother of Ahmad (eg the Palestinian leader Ahmed Qureia is commonly known as Abu Ala).

Where a particular spelling has become widely accepted through usage we should retain it. Where an individual with links to the west has clearly adopted a particular spelling of his or her own name, we should respect that. For breaking news and stories using names for which the Guardian has no established style, we take the lead given by Reuters wire copy.

Note also that names in some parts of the Arab world have become gallicised, while others have become anglicised, eg the leading Egyptian film director, Youssef Chahine, uses a French spelling instead of the English transliteration, Shaheen.

Some guidelines (for use particularly where there is no established transliteration):

al-
Means "the". In names it is not capitalised, eg Ahmad al-Saqqaf, and can be dropped after the first mention (Mr Saqqaf). For placenames the Guardian drops it altogether. Sometimes it appears as as- or ash- or ad- or ul-: these should be ignored and can be safely rewritten as al-. But some Arabs, including Syrians and Egyptians, prefer to use el- in place of al-. Exceptions: by convention, Allah (al-Lah, literally "the God") is written as one word and capitalised; and in Saudi royal names, Al Saud is correct (in this case, "al" is actually "aal" and does not mean "the").

abdul, abu and bin

These are not self-contained names, but are connected to the name that follows:
abdul means "slave of ... " and so cannot correctly be used on its own. There are standard combinations, "slave of the merciful one", "slave of the generous one", etc, which all indicate that the person is a servant of God. In transliteration, "abd" (slave) is lower case, eg Ahmad abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf, except when used at the start of a name
abu (father of) and bin (son of) are similar. When they appear in the middle of a name they should be lower case and are used in combination with the following part of the name: Faisal abu Ahmad al-Saqqaf, Faisal bin Ahmad al-Saqqaf.

Despite the above, some people are actually known as "Abdul". This is more common among non-Arab Muslims. And some Arabs run "abd" or "abu" into the following word, eg the writer Abdelrahman Munif.

Muhammad

Our style for the prophet's name and for most Muhammads living in Arab countries, though where someone's preferred spelling is known we respect it, eg Mohamed Al Fayed, Mohamed ElBaradei. The spelling Mohammed (or variants) is considered archaic by most British Muslims, and disrespectful by many of them.

Muhandis/Mohandes, Qadi
Be wary of names where the first word is Muhandis or Qadi: these are honorary titles, meaning engineer and judge respectively

Arafat, Yasser

Aran Island
is off Co Donegal and the Aran Islands off Co Galway in western Ireland; the Isle of Arran is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Aran sweaters, whether Irish or Scottish, are lower case with an initial cap A

archbishops
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, at first mention, thereafter Williams or the archbishop;
the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, on first mention, subsequently Murphy-O'Connor or the archbishop

archdeacon
the Ven Paul Olive, Archdeacon of Farringdon, at first mention; then just Olive, or the archdeacon

archery
arrows are shot, rather than fired; and if they hit the centre of the target, it is a gold rather than a bullseye

archipelago
plural archipelagos

arch-rival

Ardoyne (Belfast)
not "the Ardoyne"

Argentine
noun and adjective; not Argentinian

arguably
unarguably one of the most overused words in the language

armed forces, armed services

army, the
the British army, the navy, but Royal Navy, Royal Air Force or RAF

arms akimbo
hands on hips, elbows out; it is surprising how often the phrase "legs akimbo" turns up in the paper, "suggesting that such a posture exists, but lacks a word to define it", as David McKie wrote

around
about or approximately are better, eg "about £1m" or "approximately 2,000 people"

around or round?
We were driving around aimlessly all weekend; it nearly drove me round the bend

arranged marriages
are a traditional and perfectly acceptable form of wedlock across southern Asia and within the Asian community in Britain; they should not be confused with forced marriages, which are arranged without the consent of one or both partners, and have been widely criticised

arse
British English; ass American English

art movements
lc: art deco, art nouveau, cubism, dadaism, expressionism, gothic, impressionism, pop art, surrealism etc
but Bauhaus, Modern (in the sense of Modern British, to distinguish it from "modern art"), pre-Raphaelite, Romantic (to differentiate between a romantic painting and a Romantic painting)

artefact

artist
not artiste (except, possibly, in a historical context)

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Scottish Arts Council

as or since?
"as" is causal: I cannot check the online style guide as the connection is down
"since" is temporal: Luckily, I have had the stylebook on my desk since it was published

asbo

ascendancy, ascendant

Asean
Association of South-east Asian Nations

Ash
Action on Smoking and Health

Ashura
a day of voluntary fasting for Muslims: Shia Muslims also commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the prophet. For their community, therefore, it is not a festival but a day of deep mourning

Asperger's syndrome

aspirin

assassin, assassination
the murder of prominent political figures rather than, say, celebrities

Association of Chief Police Officers
is on second mention Acpo

astrologer
not astrologist

astronomer royal

Asunción
capital of Paraguay

asylum seeker
Someone seeking refugee status or humanitarian protection; there is no such thing as an "illegal asylum seeker", a term the Press Complaints Commission ruled in breach of its code or practice.

Refugees are people who have fled their home countries in fear for their lives, and may have been granted asylum under the 1951 refugee convention or qualify for humanitarian protection or discretionary leave, or have been granted exceptional leave to remain in Britain.

An asylum seeker can only become an illegal immigrant if he or she remains in Britain after having failed to respond to a removal notice

ATCU
Associated Train Crew Union; not to be confused with ACTU, the Australian Council of Trade Unions

athletics
1500m but 5,000m (the former is the "fifteen hundred" not "one thousand five hundred" metres)

Atlantic Ocean
or just the Atlantic

attache
no accent

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
ADHD after first mention

Attlee, Clement
(1883-1967) Labour prime minister 1945-51, often misspelt as Atlee

attorney general
lc, no hyphen

auger
used to make holes

augur
predict or presage

Aum Shinrikyo
means Supreme Truth sect, but note that the "aum" means sect, so to talk about the "Aum sect" or "Aum cult" is tautologous

Auntie
not Aunty if you must refer to the BBC in this way

au pair

Australasia
use Oceania

Australian Labor party
not Labour

autism
neurological disorder, to be used only when referring to the condition, not as a term of abuse, or in producing such witticisms as "mindless moral autism" and "Star Wars is a form of male autism", both of which have appeared in the paper

autistic
someone with autism, not someone with poor social skills

Autocue
TM; teleprompter is a generic alternative

autumn

avant garde
no hyphen

average, mean and median
Although we loosely refer to the "average" in many contexts (eg pay), there are two useful averages worth distinguishing.

What is commonly known as the average is the mean: everyone's wages are added up and divided by the number of wage earners. The median is described as "the value below which 50% of employees fall" ie it is the wage earned by the middle person when everyone's wages are lined up from smallest to largest. (For even numbers there are two middle people, but you calculate the mean average of their two wages.)

The median is often a more useful guide than the mean, which can be distorted by figures at one extreme or the other

awards, prizes, medals
are generally lc, eg Guardian first book award, Nobel peace prize, Fields medal (exceptions: the Academy Awards, Victoria Cross); note that categories are lc, eg "he took the best actor Oscar at the awards"

awol
stands for "absent without leave" but, having been around since at least the 1920s, has established itself as a word in its own right

awopbopaloobop alopbamboom

axing
not axeing, but cutting jobs is less cliched than axing them

axis
plural axes

Ayers Rock
now known as Uluru

Azerbaijan
noun, Azerbaijani adjective; note that there are ethnic Azeris living in, for example, Armenia

Aznar, José María
former Spanish prime minister