Cabinet
Capital in both British and foreign use, whether used as a noun
or adjectivally.
call-up
to call up
cannon (military, same form for singular and plural)
but canons (ecclesiastical, both churchmen and church
laws)
and canon as a collection/list of an author
canvas (material, painting)
canvass (votes)
capitalisation
In general, the proper names of people and places, formal titles or titles
of important offices, and the names of well-known and substantial
institutions, all require capitals.
catapult (not catapault)
Catch-22
avoid the grossly overworked cliché Catch-22 situation
cathedrals
Capitalise when giving the full name, e.g., St Paul's Cathedral, Wells
Cathedral; similarly the names of churches, e.g., St Mary's Church, Ely,
unless we know that the church name specifically excludes it, e.g., St
Stephen's, Ely
Catherine
Always check the spelling. A Catherine wheel (firework); St Catharine's
College, Cambridge; St Katharine Docks, London
Catholic
In church context, say Roman Catholic at first mention, then Catholic.
CBI, Confederation of British Industry
ceasefire
ceilidh
Social gathering (Highland)
centenarian
centenaries
Use centenary, bicentenary, tercentenary; after that, say four (five)
hundredth anniversary.
Central Europe (with capital C)
centring
, but centering of arches in bridge-building
centuries
The style is the 3rd century BC, the 9th century, the 18th century, etc.
and adjectivally with the hyphen, e.g., 20th-century architecture.
Ceylon
Now Sri Lanka. The people are Sri Lankan.
chairman
Still the common usage referring to men and women, except in quotes, but chairwoman
is acceptable. Avoid chair and chairperson.
chamber (lower case) of the House of Commons.
changeable
Changing the Guard (not ... of the Guard)
Channel
Tunnel (with cap T)
Chanukkah
The Jewish festival of lights.
cheap
Goods are cheap, prices are low.
check-in (noun)
But checklist, checkout counter
chickenpox
(no hyphen; similarly smallpox)
Chief Constable
Capital when referring to a specific, as
in Chief Constable of Lancashire; thereafter, the chief constable.
chimpanzees
are apes, not monkeys
Christ Church (the Oxford college), never Christ Church
College.
Christchurch, in Dorset and New Zealand
christened
People are christened, ships and trains, etc. are named
Christian, Christianity, unchristian, non-Christian,
antichristian, Antichrist
Christmas Day, Christmas Eve
churchwarden (one word)
cider (not cyder)
City of London, the City, City prices.
Civil
Guard(s) (Spanish police), use initial capitals
Civil List (capitals)
Civil Service, but civil servants.
Always capitalise Civil Service, even in adjectival use, e.g., a Civil
Service memorandum.
clichés
Do not use - ever! Some of the most common, to be resisted strongly in
almost every context, are: backlash, basically, beleaguered,
blueprint, bombshell, bonanza, brainchild, chaos, charisma, clampdown,
consensus, crackdown, crisis, crunch, drama/dramatic, escalate, facelift,
gunned down, hopefully, ironically, legendary, major, massive, mega-,
nightmare, prestigious, quantum leap, reportedly, shambles, shock,
shoot-out, situation, trauma/traumatic, unique.
closed-circuit
television
cloud-cuckoo-land (two hyphens)
coalface, coalfield, coalmine (each one word)
coalminer (but prefer miner)
coastguard lower case and one word, in the British context.
coasts
Capitalise South Coast, East Coast and West Coast in British context (as
in West Coast Main Line - now all capitals); also East Coast and West
Coast in US.
coats of arms see heraldry
Coca-Cola (hyphen)
Similarly Pepsi-Cola
cockfight (no hyphen), as bullfight and dogfight
Cockney
Capitals for the person or the dialect, but lower case for general
adjectival use, e.g., a cockney welcome.
coexist
Coldstream
Guards
May be called the Coldstream and the men Coldstreamers or Coldstream
Guards; neither should be called Coldstreams.
Cold War
collarbone (one word)
collectibles (not -ables), items sought by collectors
collective nouns
Usually use the singular verb, as with corporate bodies (the company, the
Government, the council, etc.). But this rule is not inviolable; the key is
to stick to the singular or plural throughout the work.
Colombia is the country
Columbia is the Hollywood studio, university, river and
Washington district.
Also, note British Columbia and Pre-Columbian
Colosseum in Rome
Coliseum in London
comeuppance (no hyphen)
Commander-in-Chief, Officer Commanding (capitals)
Commandments
Capitalise in biblical context, as the Ten Commandments, the Fourth
Commandment.
commando, plural commandos (not -oes)
Commission, Commissioner
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
Similarly, capitalise City of London Police, British Transport
Police and all police forces when the full title is given.
Common Market
Usually use EU or EC (see Europe), though Common Market is acceptable in
its historic context.
common sense (noun)
But commonsense, commonsensical
(adjective)
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (capitals)
communism, communist
As with socialism and socialist, the best rule-of-thumb is to capitalise
only when in specific party context, e.g., a Communist candidate, a
Communist rally, the Communist Mayor of Lille; but communist ideology,
communist countries, etc. It will help to think of a parallel with
conservative/conservatism or liberal/liberalism. But Marxist, Stalinist,
Nazi and Fascist should be capped.
companies
Abbreviate to Co in, e.g., John Brown & Co.
Company is singular.
Full points in company titles are usually unnecessary, as in W H Smith and
J Sainsbury.
NB. Do not confuse the words company and firm. A firm
implies a business partnership, as in the legal or accountancy
professions, estate agents, etc.
comparatively,
relatively
Avoid using as synonyms of fairly or middling.
compass points in the UK
Regional phrases, if well established and in common use, take capitals, as
in the North, the South, the West,
the South East, the North East, the South
West, the West Country, the West
Midlands, the East Midlands, East
Anglia, North Wales, South Wales, West Wales, the East/West
End of London.
But adjectivally, southeast England (though still the South
East of England).
Overseas, capitalise the following: the Midwest (US), Central
America, West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, South
Africa but southern Africa, North and South
Atlantic and Pacific, the Middle/Far
East, but sub-Saharan Africa and south
India, etc.
complement (completing something); but
compliment (praise or tribute); complimentary
as in free gifts etc.
comprise means to consist of, be composed of.
Congress (US)
But congressional lower/case, and congressman also lower/case except when
with a name, e.g., Congressman John Waldorfburger.
connection
constitution of a country is capped only when an actual
document, e.g., the American Constitution, but the British constitution.
consult never say consult with
Continent,
the, referring to mainland Europe, but lower case continental
continuous means without intermission
continual means frequently recurring
contract out has no hyphen
convertible (not -able), noun and adjective
conveyor belt; a conveyer is a person
who conveys
co-operate,
co-ordinate
etc; but uncooperative, uncoordinated, non-cooperation
copycat (no hyphen)
copyright (sole right in artistic work etc);
copywriter (advertising)
Coronation
Capital when referring to a specific event, such as Elizabeth II's in
1953, and also capital Coronation Oath; but lower case in most adjectival
uses, e.g., coronation ceremony, coronation broadcast.
counties spell out names except in lists
Do not add -shire to Devon (except in Devonshire cream or the Duke of
Devonshire), Dorset, Somerset. Irish counties should be as Co Donegal (cap
“C”, no full point); Co Durham takes the same style. Take great care
with new, reorganised or abolished counties.
Creole
is a person born in the West Indies or Latin America whose ancestry is
wholly or partly European. It does not imply mixed race
crescendo
Means getting louder, growing in force. Nothing rises to a crescendo.
Plural is crescendos.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (abbreviate CJD).
cross-Channel, but transatlantic
Crown (in constitutional sense) is capped, as in Crown
property, the Crown representative.
Crown Jewels (capped)
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
Customs and Excise
Capital for the organisation (or simply
Customs), lower case for customs officer, customs post, customs
regulations, etc.
cutthroat (no hyphen)
Czech
Republic
Use Czechoslovakia only in the historic sense. The two countries since
their division are the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Dail
Eireann
The lower house of the Irish parliament; usually just the Dail.
Dales, the Yorkshire (capital); or just the Dales
dance see Arts special section
Dark Ages
Capitals, but take care; the period after the fall of the Roman Empire is
no longer considered wholly obscure and barbaric.
Darwin, Charles
Write the title of his great work as On the Origin of Species
(usually omitting the words by Means of Natural Selection).
daytime, but night-time
D-Day,
VE-Day, VJ-Day
deathbed (no hyphen)
death row (as in American prisons), lower case
debatable
Debrett, or full title Debrett's Peerage
debut (no accent)
decades use either the Sixties or the 1960s. See Dates
decimals do not mix decimals and fractions.
defuse
Means to remove the fuse from, or reduce tension in a crisis, etc.
Never
confuse with diffuse, which means to spread in all
directions, scatter, etc. or (as adjective) verbose, not concise, spread
over a large area, etc.
Degas
(no accent)
degrees (educational)
A first, a second, an upper second (a 2:1), a lower second (a 2:2), a
third, etc.
Abbreviations as follows: doctorates of literature (or letters), D Lit, D
Litt, LitD, etc.
Oxford and York have D Phil instead of the more usual PhD.
Oxford has DM for the more usual MD. Cambridge has ScD for doctor of
science.
No full points in degrees
degrees (weather) omit degree sign in temperatures.
déjà vu (accents but not italic)
demise
Strictly means the death of a person, or the
failure of an enterprise or institution. Keep to these definitions.
demonstration
demonstrator
deny does not mean the same as rebut
(which means argue to the contrary, producing evidence), or refute
(which means to win such an argument).
dependant
(noun), dependent (adj), dependency
Depression, the capital for the 1930s economic slump
Deputy Prime Minister (capitals); similarly, Deputy
Governor of the Bank of England. But these are the exceptions to the rule
that deputy posts should normally take the lower case, e.g., deputy editor
desiccate
desktop (computer, publishing), no hyphen
Devil, the (capital)
but devils (many,
lower case)
devilish
diagnose
Take great care: illnesses are diagnosed,
patients are not.
Diana, Princess of Wales
At first mention; subsequently
the Princess (capital, as she remained a member of the Royal Family until
her death).
different
from, and NEVER different to or than; likewise, differ from
dignitaries
dilapidated (not delapidated)
diocese
Capital in specifics, such as Diocese of
Chichester or the Guildford Diocese, but lower case in general use, and
lower case diocesan.
Director
of Public Prosecutions (DPP)
disc (musical, recording, or shape, e.g., disc jockey,
compact disc, disc brake)
But disk in general computing
context, e.g., disk drive, floppy disk
discreet means tactful, circumspect (noun discretion)
discrete means individually distinct (noun discreteness)
disinterested means impartial, unbiased (noun
disinterest)
Never confuse with uninterested, which
means having a lack of interest
dispatch (not despatch), including dispatch box
dissociate (not disassociate)
distil, distilled, distillation
divorcé, man; divorcée, woman; use divorcees
(no accent) in reference to both men and women
doctor
The title Dr should no longer be confined to medical practitioners. If a
person has a doctorate from a reputable institution, and wishes to be
known as Dr Smith, he or she should be so titled.
dogfight, as bullfight, cockfight, etc.
dogs
lower case with most breeds, such as alsatian, borzoi, labrador,
rottweiler, though there are obvious exceptions such as West Highland
terrier, Yorkshire terrier, etc.
dollars
If using dollars then also write the sterling equivalent in brackets
after.
Domesday
Book (roman, like Magna Carta)
but doomsday in general or biblical sense.
do's and don'ts
dot-com use hyphen for colloquial reference to Internet
companies
Downing Street write 10 Downing Street (or 11 ...), or
simply No 10.
Down's syndrome never say mongol
Down Under capitalise as a colloquialism for Australasia
(especially Australia)
draconian (lower case)
draftsman (legal)
but draughtsman (art, design)
dreamt,
not dreamed
drier is the comparative of dry
dryer is the noun, as in tumble dryer
dropout
(noun or adjective - as in students);
drop-out (rugby); and to drop out (verb)
drugs
Do not confuse narcotics (which include cocaine and heroin) with other
illicit drugs such as cannabis, LSD and amphetamines.
Druid(s) (capital)
dual (of two, eg, dual carriageway)
duel (fight)
dysentery (not dysentry or disentery)