Author Archives: Team Stylebot

Team USA is the exception
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Capitalize "Team USA" when referring to the United States' Olympic team: "He will not be representing Team USA at the Olympics." Use singular verbs: "Team USA is favored to win the event."
Capitalize "Olympics," "Olympic Games," "Summer Olympics," "Winter Olympics" and "Games" when it's a shortened version of the proper name: "The postponement of the 2020 Games was a disappointment for some athletes." Also capitalize "Olympian": "He is a three-time Olympian."

Let the Games begin
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"Reign" is the term you use to describe a monarch or a predominant force: "Elizabeth I reigned over England and Ireland for more than 40 years." "Even though she tried to stick to the agenda, chaos reigned in the meeting." A "rein" is what you use to control horses: "She grabbed the reins." The expression is "free rein": "The students were given free rein to choose any topic they wanted for their final presentation."

Free rein 🏇
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Don't capitalize "solstice," which refers to the longest day and the shortest day of the year: "Her wedding was a few days after the summer solstice, so it didn't get dark until nearly 9 p.m." In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice is in June and the winter solstice is in December.

When the ☀️ is at a standstill
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Hyphenate "half-staff" when writing about flags on land that are flown only halfway up the flagpole: "White House flags flew at half-staff as a symbol of mourning." Although the terms are often used interchangeably, reserve "half-mast" for flags on ships or at naval installations.

Ships ahoy!
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"Discrete" and "discreet" are not interchangeable. "Discrete" means separate: "We decided to combine the entries, so there are not discrete responses for each term." "Discreet" means prudent/showing good judgment or unnoticeable: "He was able to be discreet when leaving."

🤫 Please be discreet
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LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated in June each year. Capitalize "Pride Month," and capitalize "Pride" when you're writing about events and festivities associated with the celebration: "They visited during Pride so they could attend the parade." Otherwise, do not capitalize "pride": "He described himself as a champion of LGBTQ+ pride." Don't capitalize "pride flag": "They displayed a pride flag in the window."

Take Pride
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Use "iced tea" and "iced coffee" instead of "ice tea" and "ice coffee," though those terms will likely to go the way of "iced cream" eventually :icecream:: "He liked to drink iced coffee, even in the winter."

Flip-flop szn
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Opt for gender-neutral language when referring to graduates of a school. "Graduate" and "graduates" work just fine instead of alumni, alumnus, alumna or alumnae: "She was a graduate of the University of Chicago."

🎓 Congrats, grads
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Capitalize "mom," "dad," "aunt," "uncle," etc., only when you substitute them for a name, such as when addressing the person directly: "Hi, Dad, how was your day?" But: "I asked my grandma how her day was." So if you are using "my" or another possessive pronoun, do not capitalize.

What you can learn from mom
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