Online style guide
- earn, earned
we still say 'hard-earned cash', not hard-earnt
- earring
- Earth
when in planetary context: the Earth goes round the Sun. But lower case in why on earth would you say that?
- eastern Europe
- eBay
- eco lodge
- eco resort
- ecotourism
- effect (noun), affect (verb)
his nagging had no effect whatsoever. Wait for the drug to take effect. But that change will affect a lot of people.
- eg
for example ... no punctuation
- either ... or, neither ... nor
We have to choose either the pink or the blue. We ended up with neither the pink nor the blue. But be careful of stray 'nor's, as in *'We don't like the pink nor the blue.' It should be 'We don't like the pink or the blue,' or 'we like neither the pink nor the blue.'
- eke, eked
eke out a living ... not eek!
- elicit
means to draw out ... illicit is unlawful
- Eliot, TS
- ellipsis ...
three dots only...and even at the end of a sentence, no closing full stop is needed... Punctuation marks are set in stone and shouldn't be messed with. Some people type two, five, six or more dots, and this kind of free expression has no place on a grown-up website. Note that an ellipsis with one letter space either side indicates missing text in a quotation.
- elude
escape, avoid (allude to means to refer to indirectly)
no hyphen. But e-book, e-business, e-commerce, e-shares, e-shopping, e-zine
- embarrass, embarrassment, embarrassing
- emend
take out errors, edit (amend is to improve)
- empathic, empathetic
are both used to describe someone who can empathise, but empathic is preferred
- en masse
- enamoured of
not with or by
- encyclopedia
- England
does not include Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use UK or United Kingdom to refer to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as a whole. Great Britain includes only England, Scotland and Wales.
- enquiry
seeking information (inquiry is a more formal investigation into something)
- enrol, enrolling, enrolment
- ensure
make certain; insure against risk, assure your life
- envelop (verb), envelope (noun)
- epileptic
should be used only to name the seizure; a person 'has epilepsy'.
- EPO (erythropoietin)
performance-enhancing drug
- equable
even-tempered ... equitable is fair or just
- equally good
not 'equally as good'
- equator
- equitable
fair ... equable means even-tempered
- ersatz
serving as a substitute [Macquarie] not erzats
- erythropoletin (EPO)
performance-enhancing drug
- Esky
trademark, so capitalise
- etc
no punctuation and, if spelled out: et cetera
- eulogy
a tribute (elegy is a sad poem)
- euro
European Union's official currency. The symbol () can be created using the HTML code €
- even-handed, even-handedness
- every day, everyday
I go there every day ... but it is an everyday occurence
- evocative
tending to evoke feelings or memories of something, so you need to say what. For example, I find a certain type of pipe tobacco evocative of my grandfather.
- evoke
call forth, inspire ... (invoke is to call upon or appeal to a deity, or the law)
- expatriate, expat
someone who lives outside their native country. An 'ex-patriot' is someone who used to be patriotic but isn't any more—not necessarily the same thing.
- expel
expel, expelled, expelling
- extrovert