Entries - U

UFO

Unidentified Falling Object

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

ultra

no hyphen

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Courier

under way

not "underway"

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Courier, style, translation

underdeveloped

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underestimate

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undersea

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underserved

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underutilise

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UNESCO

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

Not "Unesco"

Acronym doesn’t need spelling out for the CERN Courier

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abbreviations, acronyms, Courier, translation

unidirectional

translation

units

All SI units are lower case when spelled out: metre (m), kilogram (kg), second (s), ampere (A), kelvin (K), candela (cd), mole (mol).

Note: The tesla is the SI-derived unit of magnetic flux density. It has a lower-case "t" when spelled out, though its symbol is an upper-case "T".

Spell them out on first mention, then use the symbol.

I weigh 75 kilograms. Last month I gained 4 kg after I stopped running 5 kilometres every morning.

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style

universe

not capitalised

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translation

Universe

Upper case when referring to our Universe, otherwise lower case 

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style

up to date (pred.); up-to-date (adj.)

no hyphen

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translation

updated

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upgrade (noun and verb); upgradable

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uplink

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upload

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URLs

Where it is useful to advertise a URL (in printed materials, for instance) use the following format: cern.ch/[sitename]

Example: cern.ch/writing-guidelines (note that this resolves to test-static-04.web.cern.ch, which is less easy for new users to remember).

Notes

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link

US

Not USA. There is hardly every any need to spell out United States, even at first mention. America is preferable in some contexts (“God bless the US” would sound silly).  It is permissible to use "American" instead of "US" as an adjective.

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style

usability

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usable

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user-friendly (adj.); user-friendliness

use hyphen

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Users Office

not "Users’ Office"

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translation

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