Handbook of style in use at the Riverside Press/Spelling
SPELLING
Unless other instructions are given, follow Webster’s International Dictionary. When that dictionary recognizes two forms, use the form given in the list below. If copy is prepared consistently, however, do not change the author’s spelling.
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Spell with -ise
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Spell with -ize or -yze
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Nouns ending in o form the plural by adding s if the singular ends in s preceded by a vowel; e.g., bamboo, bamboos; cameo, cameos; embryo, embryos; if the singular ending is in o preceded by a consonant, by adding es; e.g., buffalo, buffaloes; desperado, desperadoes; echo, echoes; hero, heroes; motto, mottoes; potato, potatoes.
The following nouns are exceptional, and form the plural by simply adding s:—
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When the prefixes “co-,” “re-,” “pre-,” are followed by the same vowel, use the diæresis marked vowel for the second one, without the hyphen; as, “coördinate,” “reëlection,” “preëminent.” If the prefix comes at the end of a line, with the hyphen, the diæresis is not to be used. The diæresis is not to be used in words beginning with “aer”; as, aeroplane, aery, aerial, etc.
Before sounded h, long u, and the word “one,” use a as the form of the indefinite article; as, a hotel, a history, a union, such a one.
Use the dipthong æ and œ in Latin quotations and in quotations from Old English or French.
In vocative forms of address, use “O” (capitalized), without a comma following; for an exclamation, use “oh,” followed by a comma, but capitalized only at beginning of sentences.
Worcester Spellings
In this list will be found the preferred Worcester spellings, not adopted by the Riverside Press, where they differ from the International Dictionary.
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English Spellings
In the English style of spelling, many words which, in American usage, end in or, end in our. Words thus ending in our are:—
- arbour
- ardour
- armour
- behaviour
- candour
- clamour
- clangour
- colour
- demeanour
- discolour
- dolour
- endeavour
- favour
- fervour
- flavour
- harbour
- honour
- humour
- invigour
- labour
- misbehaviour
- misdemeanour
- neighbour
- odour
- parlour
- rancour
- rigour
- rumour
- savour
- splendour
- succour
- tabour
- tumour
- valour
- vapour
- vigour
Under instructions to “use English spelling,” the above forms are to be used; also the following:—
- cheque (on a bank)
- chequered
- connexion
- dreamt
- faggot
- forgather
- forgo
- grey
- inflexion
- jewelery
- leapt
- premiss (in logic)
- waggon
Proper Names.
Correct spellings are here given. Where two or more forms of the same name are given, it is to be understood that each is equally correct, and the copy form is to be followed.
- à Becket (Thomas)
- à Becket (A.W. and G.A.)
- Acadia (Nova Scotia)
- Adeler (Mary)
- Adler (Rabbi)
- Air (Point of), N. Wales
- Allan-a-Dale
- Allan Poe (Edgar)
- Allegany County (Md.)
- Alleghany Mountains
- Allegheny City and River
- All Souls College (Oxford)
- Alma Tadema (Lawrence)
- Alma Tadema (Miss Laurence)
- Andersen (Hans C.)
- Apennines
- Appalachians
- Arcadia (poetic)
- Austen (Jane, English novelist)
- Austin (Jane G., American novelist)
- Ayre (Point of), Isle of Man
- Bastille
- Baylis (T.H., writer)
- Bayliss (Sir Wyke, painter)
- Berthallet (C.L., chemist)
- Berthelot (P.E.M., chemist)
- Beverley (Eng.)
- Beverly (Mass.)
- Biglow Papers
- Bischoff (K.Ct.)
- Bischoff (T.L.W.)
- Björnson (Björnstjerne)
- Bonheur (Rosa)
- Britannia
- Brittany
- Brobdingnag
- Brookline (Mass.)
- Brooklyn (N.Y.)
- Brooks (Phillips)
- Burdette (Robert J.)
- Carey (Matthew)
- Carribbean Sea
- Caribbees
- Cariboo (B.C.)
- Caribou (Idaho)
- Carlisle (J.G.)
- Carlyle (Thomas)
- Carnegie Institution
- Cary (Phœbe)
- Charleston (S.C.)
- Charlestown (Mass.)
- Chile or Chili
- Colombia (So. America)
- Coverly (Sir Roger de)
- Danzig or Dantzic
- Davy (Sir Humphry)
- Dafoe (Daniel)
- De Quincey (Thomas)
- Douglas (Stephen A.)
- Douglass (Frederick)
- Dutchess County (N.Y.)
- Easthampton (Mass.)
- Eifel River
- Eiffel Tower
- Eliot (George, novelist )
- Eliot (Charles W.)
- Elliot (Daniel Giraud)
- Elliot (George Thompson)
- Elliot (Henry Rutherford)
- Elliott (A. Marshall)
- Elliott (Jonathan)
- Elliott (Maud Howe)
- Elliott (Maxine)
- Ericsson (John)
- Fénelon
- Field (Cyrus W.)
- Field (Eugene)
- Fielde (Adèle Marion)
- Fields (Annie Adams)
- Fields (James T.)
- Fisk (Herbert Franklin)
- Fiske (John)
- Fiske (Minnie Maddern)
- FitzGerald (Edward)
- Gérôme
- Gray (Thomas)
- Greeley (Horace)
- Greely (Major-General)
- Green (J.R.)
- Greene (Robert)
- Grey (Lady Jane)
- Grey (Earl)
- Harrison (Frederic)
- Harte (Francis Bret)
- Hobbes (John Oliver)
- Hobbes (Thomas)
- Humphrey (Duke)
- Hutton (Laurence)
- Istlilxochitl (Mexican historian)
- Iyeyasu (Japanese statesman)
- Jansen (Cornelius, theologian)
- Janssen (Cornelius, painter)
- Janssens (Abraham, painter)
- Jefferies (Richard, naturalist)
- Jeffrey (Lord, critic)
- Jeffreys (George, Lord, judge)
- Jeffreys (Miss Ellis, actress)
- Jeffries (Maud, actress)
- Johannesburg (S. Africa)
- Johannisburg (Prussia)
- Johns Hopkins University
- Johnston (Albert Sidney)
- Johnston (Joseph E.)
- Johnson (Doctor Samuel)
- Jonson (Ben)
- Kamchatka
- Kaufmann (Angelica, painter)
- Kauffmann (C., Russian general)
- Kouropatkin (Russian general)
- Leipsic or Leipzig
- Lenox Library
- Lenox (Mass.)
- Lichfield (England)
- Litchfield (Connecticut)
- Livingston (Chancellor))
- Livingstone (David)
- Luxembourg (Palace, Gardens)
- Luxemburg (Belgian province)
- Magdalen College (Oxford)
- Magdalene College (Cambridge)
- Mitchell (Donald G.)
- Mitchill (Samuel L.)
- Morris (Gouverneur)
- Newcastle (Del.)
- New Castle (Ind. and N. H.)
- Northampton (Mass.)
- North Hampton (N. H.)
- Nuremberg or Nürnberg
- Oliphant (Laurence)
- Peking
- Philips (Ambrose)
- Phillips (Wendell)
- Procter (Adelaide)
- Pyrenees
- Read (Thomas B., poet)
- Reade (Charles, novelist)
- Reed (Thomas B., statesman)
- Reid (Thomas)
- Reid (Whitelaw)
- Revue des Deux Mondes
- Rhead (Louis)
- Rheims
- Shakespeare[1]
- Shakspeare[1]
- Shakspere[1]
- Shakespearean or Shaksperian
- Sidney (Sir Phillip)
- Smith (Sydney)
- Smithsonian Institution
- Southampton (Eng. and Mass.)
- South Hampton (N. H.)
- Spencer (Herbert)
- Spencer (Edmund)
- Stephens (Alexandar H.)
- Stephens (Anna Sophia)
- Stephens (John Lloyd)
- Stephenson (George, engineer)
- Stephenson (Isaac)
- Stephenson (Robert, English engineer)
- Sterling (John)
- Sterne (Laurence)
- Stevens (Abel)
- Stevens (Benjamin F.)
- Stevens (Edwin A.)
- Stevens (Isaac Ingalls)
- Stevens (Robert L.)
- Stevens (Thaddeus)
- Stevenson (Adlai E.)
- Stevenson (Robert, Scotch engineer)
- Stevenson (Robert Louis)
- Stewart (A.T.)
- Stewart (Balfour)
- Stewart (Admiral Charles)
- Stewart (Dugald)
- Stuart (name of the former Royal Family of England)
- Stuart (Gilbert)
- Stuart (J.E.B.)
- Stuart (John M.)
- Stuart (Moses)
- Thompson (Benjamin)
- Thompson (Sylvanus P.)
- Thomson (Elihu)
- Thomson (James)
- Thomson (Sir Wm., Lord Kelvin)
- Tolstoy (Count Leo)
- Wallace (Alfred Russel)
- Ward (Mrs. Humphry)
- Washburn (Cadwallader C.)
- Washburne (Elihu B.)
- Watt (James)
- Watts (Dr. Isaac)
- Zurich