The Stylebook's addiction entry says, in part: Avoid words like abuse or problem in favor of the word use with an appropriate modifier such as risky, unhealthy, excessive or heavy. Misuse is also acceptable. Don’t assume all people who engage in risky use of drugs or alcohol have

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Use the playoff or the national championship as applicable on second reference for the College Football Playoff.

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As a reminder, AP style changed in 2019 to use the percent sign instead of spelling out the word percent. We know that 100% of AP style fans don't agree with this change but it bubbled up as a user request and recognizes common usage. Here's a story showing how it looks in

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, when U.S. retail stores traditionally launch the start of Christmas shopping.

Foul means offensive, out of line. A fowl is a bird, especially the larger domestic birds used as food: chickens, ducks, turkeys.

Several years ago, the Stylebook advised that you heat your oven, because "preheat" is redundant. That might be true linguistically, but we heard you. Common usage in cookbooks calls for preheating. Our guidance now says preheat is acceptable to refer to heating an oven to a

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The traditional meaning of "hopefully" is in a hopeful manner. Also acceptable is the modern usage: it's hoped, we hope. https://t.co/UjXW9thK3C

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A Stylebook Online subscriber asked whether the preferred term is orca or killer whale. Ask the Editor responded that the terms are used interchangeably. No matter what you call them, these images of orcas hunting a seal that survived only by clambering onto a photographer's boat

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Our guidance on numbers says that in sequential designations, generally use figures, but spell out ordinal numbers ninth and under. Capitalize the first letter for a single designation: Act 3, Day 1, Exit 2, Game 3, Phase 1, Room 6, Size 12, Stage 3, Category 4, Type 2. Use

Always use figures for vote totals. Spell out below 10 in other phrases related to voting: by a five-vote majority, with three abstentions, four votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. For results that involve fewer than 1,000 votes on each side, use these forms: The

Merriam-Webster has published a new edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. It weighs in at almost five pounds – but the lightweight way to get all those new and updated entries is to subscribe to AP Stylebook Online with the Merriam-Webster add-on. You won't get the cool thumb

In general, AP style does not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs. or Ms., except in direct quotations.

Merriam-Webster defines opening day as the first of a sequence of days related by some common factor, such as the opening day of deer season or a baseball park filled on opening day.

A rifle is a firearm designed or made to be fired from the shoulder and having a rifled bore. It uses bullets or cartridges for ammunition. Its size is measured in calibers. The form: a .22-caliber rifle. A bolt-action rifle has a manually operated handle on the barrel that

Do not abbreviate committee. Capitalize when part of a formal name: the House Appropriations Committee, the House Oversight Committee. Do not capitalize committee in shortened versions of long committee names: The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, for example,