Alphabetical list of common terms

Ongoing list of style issues to incorporate:

Latino/a/x vs. Hispanic: for people from Latin America, should generally be Latino/a/x]. If strictly Spanish-speaking, can use Hispanic. If author uses Latinx, defer to their usage.

case

East Coast, West Coast (for the United States)

anticommunism, not anti-communism

anti-racist

socioeconomic, not socio-economic

superpower, not super-power or super power

numbers with “million” following: write as a numeral (e.g., 4 million people, 15 million puppies)

supersede, not supercede

free trade - do not hyphenate (even as an adjective)

antiwar, not anti-war

name-dropping

lockdown (n.), lock down (v.)

terraform, not terra-form

backstory, not back story or back-story

-bashing (preceded by any noun) - always hyphenate

PhD, not Ph.D.

philanthrocapitalism, not philanthro-capitalism

largess, not largesse

forgo, not forego

warmonger, warmongering, not war-monger

rumormonger

co-author, not coauthor

healthcare, child care, home care (like child care, only hyphenated as adj)

single-payer (both as adj and noun)

stop-and-frisk (as adj or noun) but someone got stopped and frisked

super-rich (n.)

catalog, not catalogue

onetime, not one-time

straight talk, straight-talker

GDP (don’t need to spell out)

recreate, not re-create

relaunch, not re-launch

War on Terror, not war on terror

September 11, 2001 (for first mention) or 9/11 if multiple after first mention

Well censored, well intentioned, other variations on “well” -- do not hyphenate

Wi-Fi (not WiFi or wi-fi)

benefited (not benefitted), focused (not focussed), fueled (not fuelled) -- see this guide

start-up (with hyphen if not adjective, as startup looks weird)

protester, not protestor

antisemitic, not anti-semitic

Climate crisis or global heating may be preferred over climate change as a matter of urgency.

A

aboveground

accommodate

accumulate

Act, capitalized when specifically named, but not on second reference: Taft-Hartley Act, the act

administration: the Obama administration; the administration

advisers (use advisor only if it’s part of an official name, such as Council of Advisors

Affordable Care Act (ACA, not Obamacare)

African American–no hyphenation, either as noun or adjective

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

anti-capitalism

anti-colonial

antisemitism

antisocial

anti-union

autumn, not Autumn

B

backup

bailout

best-seller, best-selling, bestsellerdom

Big Oil (capitalize)

Black, Blackness, etc., are uppercase as a racial designation

Bolshevik

bolshevism

breakup (noun), to break up

Brown, uppercase as a racial term

buildup (n), to build up

buyout (n.), to buy out (v.)

C

cabinet, except for specific reference, as in Kitchen Cabinet

century: twentieth century (not 20th century); twentieth-century politics

civil rights movement

class: middle class

working class (no hyphen when used as noun)

middle-class values

working-class values (hyphen when used as an adjective)

the Cold War, when referring to U.S-Soviet conflict

cold-war tensions

communism

communist (lower case except for explicit references to Communist Party)

Congo: The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been, at various times, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, and Zaire (Zaïre in French). Do not confuse it with the Republic of the Congo. Use whichever name fits the time period in the article, as in, “He traveled to Zaire (the current Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Congress

congressional

Constitution (of any country)

constitutional

contra, as in Iran-contra affair

cooperative, co-op, cooperate

counterculture

counterrevolution

COVID-19

czar for metaphorical usage, i.e., energy czar, economic czar, but tsar for historic figures

D

data are plural, e.g. say “these (not this) data” “data indicate (not indicates)”, etc. This is standard in scientific communication, though in general usage people tend to use the singular

Diaspora when referring to the Jewish diaspora; lowercase as a general concept or other use

decision making (n.)

decision-making (adj.)

dot-com

dropout

E

East, but eastern

Eastern Europe (“The Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe after 1945.")

Note: Since the end of the Cold War, Eastern Europe is no longer a contemporary political category; therefore, an article about Poland today would refer to "eastern Europe," but one before 1989 and after the Second World War would speak of Eastern Europe. Our style is to use Eastern Europe as a noun and East European for the adjective form

ecofascist, no hyphen

email for both noun and verb, no capital or hyphen

émigré

ensure is our preferred spelling, except in references to health or auto insurance, etc.: He insured the ring for $100,000 in order to ensure a good night’s rest for himself.”

F

fall: when referring to the season, use autumn

fascist, fascism

follow-up

fundraiser, fundraising

G

Generation X, Gen Xers

grass roots (n)

grass-roots (adj.)

H

Hawaiʻi, but Hawaiian

healthcare (not health care or health-care)

Herzegovina (not Hercegovina)

High tech (n.), high-tech (adj.)

Holocaust is upper case when it refers to the destruction of European Jewry, lower case in phrases such as "an environmental holocaust” (which is NOT preferred usage).

I

Impressionism, Impressionists

Indigenous (capitalized)

iPhone

insure when the author is referring to health, life, auto insurance, etc.; ensure in other contexts

internet

Iraq War

J

junta (no cap and no italics)

K

Radovan Karadzic

Koran (not Quran), but check the most recent Chicago Manual

L

Labour, retain British spelling when author refers to Labour Party or New Labour

layoff (n.), to lay off (v.)

left, lowercase except with New Left, Old Left

left-wing (adj.)

left wing (n.)

lifestyle

longstanding

longtime

long-term

Lukács (accented a) We usually use Georg instead of Gyorgy

M

Dwight Macdonald

marketplace

Marxist, Marxian

McDonald’s

media - conjugate in the singular (“the Western media is…”)

Medicare (elderly)

Medicaid (poor)

millenarian

millennial

minuscule (not miniscule; think minute, not mini

Muslim (not Moslem)

Hosni Mubarak

N

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), spell out on first usage, then use initials

naive (not naïve)

Nakba, not Naqba

Native (capitalized as adjective when referring to Native Americans)

nation-state (not nation state)

Nazi, Nazism

the New York Intellectuals

nongovernmental organization (NGO, spell out on first use)

nonprofit

North

northerner, but Northerner if reference is in a US Civil War context

O

Occupied Territories

Occupy Wall Street (spell out, then use Occupy or OWS)

OECD--Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OK, rather than okay

online

P

PAC, super PAC, super PACs

part-time (adj.)

party, upper case when modified, as in the Communist Party, the Democratic Party, the Labour Party, but "The party hacks held another fundraising event."

percent is one word, spelled out, 1 percent or 100 percent (not one percent, one per cent, or 100%)

policymaker, (n.)

policy-making (adj.)

policymaking (n.)

postindustrial

postwar

president:

President Obama

Barack Obama is the president of the United States.

A Republican-dominated Congress thwarted the Obama presidency at every opportunity.

pre-war

principal means first thing or main characters, as in “The principal reason for supporting her was her stand on gun control” or “The principals in this case were three men.”

principle is always a noun, as in “My principles don’t allow me to drink alcohol.”

Progressive, capitalized when referring to a specific movement, lower case as an adjective

pro-choice

pro-life, although most readers of Dissent would use the term anti-choice rather than pro-life, we use the terms that the groups use to describe themselves

Q

al Qaeda (cap A if it begins a sentence)

R

“redneck” (use it the way you would use the “n” word or “cracker”; i.e., it’s pejorative and has to be in quotes if you’re using it)

reelection (not re-election)

right

right-wing (adj.)

rock and roll (n.), rock-and-roll (adj.)

runoff (n./adj.)

S

schadenfreude (roman, not capped)

Second World War (not WWII)

self takes a hyphen in compound, i.e., self-contained, self-respect, self-interest

shop floor

social democratic ideas

Social Democratic Party

the social democratic parties of Europe

socialism, socialist is lowercase except when reference is made to Socialist Party

sound bite

South, but southern

Southerner when speaking in US Civil War context

spot-checked

spring, not Spring

start-up

State Department, but secretary of state

summer, not Summer

Sunbelt

Supreme Court, the Court (only for US Supreme Court or SCOTUS), the Roberts Court

T

takeover

Tiananmen

think tank (n.)

think-tank (adj.)

third way (n.)

third-way (adj.)

toward (not towards)

trade-off

Tune-up

Two-spirit, two-spirited

U

UN (n. and adj.)

United States (n.) / US (adj.) In general, the Chicago Manual of style prefers "United States" to be spelled out when used as a noun. However they advise editorial discretion, so if it is clear from context, US is fine. See https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/ch10/psec032.html

union busting (n.)

union-busting (adj.)

V

v. : names of court cases, i.e., Marbury v. Madison, are italicized, but the v. can be either Roman or ital. For legal cases, we use ital. and v. rather than vs. In other contexts, we use vs.

vice president (no hyphen)

Vietnam (not Viet Nam)

the Vietnam War

the war in Vietnam

W

Walmart, not Wal-Mart

War, upper case when referring to a specific war, i.e., the Gulf War, the Vietnam War, the French and Indian War, but the war in Vietnam, the War on Poverty, the War on Terror, War on Drugs (but drug war)

Web, as in World Wide Web, but the web

webpage, website

west upper-case when used as a political designation: The decline of the West. Lower case when used as a geographic designation: We traveled west.

western, but Western as in Western thought

westerner

white, lower case as a racial designation

wholistic, fine if the authors want it. “Holistic” is also fine. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/wholistic-word-origin-and-use

winter, not Winter

work force

workplace

worldview

Worldwide

X

x-ray (all lowercase; not X-Ray or X-ray)

Xerox is a trademarked name. If you mean a copy, say copy.

Y

Z

Zapatista (not italicized)

zeitgeist (lower case, roman)