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)
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.)
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)
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