Q. In the early 1930s, my grandmother won a citywide crossword puzzle contest in New York City, earning the $1,000 prize at a time when money was tight. The winning word was qobar, a word that no longer appears in even unabridged dictionaries. Once a word is a word, isn’t it always a word?
A. Yes. But so far, there has never been a dictionary that listed all the words. There are too many words! One of the standards that lexicographers use when deciding which words to delete to make way for new ones is whether a word is actually used very often in a meaningful way. At least one online dictionary, Wordnik, has a goal of listing all the words available. Qobar isn’t listed there yet—maybe you should send it! Wiktionary, on the other hand, does include the term.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Is impactful a word and can it be used in place of influential?
A. Absolutely. Impactful is a word, and it is often used in place of influential. But like irregardless, ain’t, and alright (all of which are words in the dictionary), impactful is frowned upon as nonstandard English. Please see CMOS 5.254, under “impact; impactful”: “Avoid impactful, which is jargon (replacements include influential and powerful).”
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hi—I have researched this but would like a definitive answer. Is it “cell phone” or “cellphone”? Merriam-Webster shows it as “cell phone” but “smartphone” is one word.
A. For “definitive” answers, you can’t beat the dictionary! Even CMOS checks in with Merriam-Webster now and then.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hello. I wonder where in the CMOS might lie hidden the answer to the following question: Should I refer readers to “Table 1, in contrast to Tables 2 and 3,” or to “Table 1, in contrast to tables 2 and 3”? In other words, should all items in a numbered series such as tables, sections, chapters, etc., be capitalized in such references? A minipoll among colleagues has yielded mixed results; hence my appeal to the Ultimate Authority in Such Matters.
Q. Is sizable or sizeable the preferred American English spelling? Our searches have come up with conflicting answers.
A. If your searches give you conflicting answers, you can be fairly certain that there is no significant preference. But a dictionary will tell you whether one is preferred. The entry in Merriam-Webster is this: sizable or sizeable. The “or” means that these two spellings are equal variants (see the Help pages at Merriam-Webster, under “Variants”). Chicago usually chooses the first-listed term, even for equal variants, so we prefer sizable.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I edit in the field of foods quite frequently and I see family-sized portion or medium-sized bowl and I’m inclined to think hyphenation with size should follow more after fun-size candy bar, but I haven’t come across any ruling one way or the other. Where I can, I delete it entirely (medium bowl) but other times it just really works to use a hyphenated phrase. I didn’t see a clear ruling or related ruling in your hyphenation table (CMOS 7.96). I also read through paragraph 5.96 on phrasal adjectives, and point 5 seemed the closest to addressing the issue. Perhaps sized reduces to size when hyphenated? I welcome and thank you for any answers to this question.
A. You can look up -size in a dictionary and see that -size and -sized are accepted variants and are normally hyphenated. It’s a good idea to choose one style or the other to use throughout a document.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In formal writing, I have been shown by my coworkers that U.S. is the way to write United States. However, I was always told that very few abbreviations are to be used in formal writing, and the abbreviation U.S. should never be used in replacement of United States when writing federal documents.
A. Until the 17th edition, Chicago style was to spell out the noun in running text, but abbreviate the adjective as US. Now, we allow US as a noun, but only if the meaning is clear from context—that is, the usage is subject to editorial discretion. See paragraph 10.37 in the 18th edition of CMOS. (Note that the federal government doesn’t necessarily follow Chicago style, however!)
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is the CMOS position on how to reference the titles of posters (such as those presented at professional conferences) in the body of a document? Should the title be in quotation marks, italicized, or something else?
A. If you type “poster” into the Search box or look under “poster” in the index, you’ll find examples at CMOS 14.115 that suggest that we put such titles in quotation marks. The examples are of a PowerPoint presentation and a paper, but the treatment would be the same for a titled poster.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If you are referring to a specific war, like World War II, do you capitalize the word war even when you’re not attaching the full title, or leave it uncapitalized? For example, should I capitalize or not in the following sentence? The political fallout from the war was that Russia occupied East Germany.
A. If you type “war” into the Search box or look under “war” in the index, you’ll find examples at CMOS 8.114: World War I, Vietnam War, the war, the two world wars, etc.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Why is it so hard to find things in CMOS?
A. It must be just one of those things. If only there were a search box, or an index . . .
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]