un- (prefix)—Generally closed. Hyphenate with proper nouns: unfunded, unnatural, un-American. (See prefixes and suffixes.)
under- (prefix)—Most compounds with under are closed: undersea, underused, underreported, undersecretary, underway. (See prefixes and suffixes.)
underway (adj., adv.)—Underway refueling. Preparations are underway.
United States—Spell out when used as a noun. Acceptable to abbreviate (U.S.) as an adjective: He lives in the United States. He is a U.S. citizen. U.S. courts, U.S. dollars.
United Way Day of Caring
United Way of Buffalo and Erie County
university names—Do not capitalize the article the as part of a university’s name: He attended the State University of New York at Buffalo. If a university has multiple campuses, follow the university's preferred style, using the word at, a dash, a comma, etc., to specify: the University of Wisconsin–Madison; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Upward Bound Program
U.S.—See United States.
U.S. Department of Education (but New York State Education Department)
versus— Spell out in running text. In short expressions, the abbreviation vs. (with period) is permitted: guns vs. butter. Abbreviate as v. (with period) in legal cases: New York Times v. Sullivan. (See legal cases.)
Veterans Day (no apostrophe)
vice—two words (no hyphen) in all uses: vice president, vice chair, vice provost, vice principal.
videotape (n., v.)—Do you have a blank videotape? They will videotape the ceremony.
wars, battles—Full titles of wars, battles, and conflicts are capitalized. "The words war and battle are lowercased when used alone." (28) The American Civil War, World War I, Second World War, the two world wars, Battle of the Bulge, Mexican Revolution. (See World War I, World War II.)
web—lowercase in most references to the Internet: web, web page, website. Capitalize World Wide Web. (See Computer-Related Terms.)
well—Compounds formed with well are hyphenated before a noun, open after: well-known story, the news was well received.
Western (adj.)—Western customs, Western dress, Western New York, Western Europe. (See directions and regions.)
Western New York
West Side—Buffalo's West Side, New York's Lower West Side (See directions and regions.)
white—lowercase for Caucasian.
-wide (suffix)—Generally closed except with proper nouns and words of three or more syllables: campuswide, worldwide, Buffalo-wide, university-wide. “Hyphenated compounds retain the hyphen both before and after a noun.” (29) (See prefixes and suffixes.)
Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo
work—Most compound nouns with work are closed: workforce, workgroup, workhorse, workload, workplace, workroom, work camp, work site. Consult the dictionary.
work-study (n., adj.)
World War I, World War II, the First World War, the Great War, the Second World War, World Wars I and II, the two world wars. (30)
(28) Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition (1993), 7.97
(29) Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (2003), 7.90
(30) Ibid., 8.121
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