Abbreviation for United Kingdom. Note periods, no space. Use UK (with no periods) only in postal addresses.
Word List
The Yahoo! Word List
The Yahoo! word list covers terms related to communications, technology, branding, and other topics that our U.S. editors have encountered frequently. Following is a healthy sampling of the full Yahoo! word list. (We update the online list quarterly—see what’s new.)
These are the decisions that Yahoo! has come to after years of writing and editing for the Web. You may naturally make different choices and have different entries, but our word list can be useful as a springboard or as an additional reference.
-
U.K. (n., adj.)
-
U.N. (n., adj.)
Abbreviation for United Nations. Note periods, no space.
-
U.S. (n., adj.)
Abbreviation for United States. Note periods, no space. Not US or U. S. The single exception is specifying currency in prices; in this case, do not include the periods. Example: US$299.
-
UI
Abbreviation for user interface. Abbreviation OK to use after initial explanation.
-
unfriend (v.)
OK to use as a verb meaning to remove a friend from one’s network on a social-networking site. Example: Carrie unfriended everyone who humiliated her at the prom.
Added on October 22, 2010 -
UNIX
-
up-to-date
Note hyphens. Examples: Keep your calendar up-to-date. Keep an up-to-date calendar.
-
upper-left corner
Note hyphen. Not upper-left-hand corner.
-
upper-right corner
Note hyphen. Not upper-right-hand corner.
-
URL
All capitals. Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Abbreviation is always OK. Plural: URLs. Pronunciation “yoo-ar-el” is most common (a URL); however, pronouncing URL as “earl” is also acceptable (an URL) as long as it is done consistently.
-
USA
Abbreviation for United States of America. Abbreviation is always OK.
-
USB
Abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus. Abbreviation is always OK.
-
user
Because of the techie, impersonal nature of the term user, consider using member, subscriber, customer, reader, visitor, or similar. For more details, see “User-Instruction Mechanics.”
-
user name
Lowercase, two words. Not username.
Build your own word list
A word list is an important part of a site’s style guide. It tracks your decisions, helps you enforce them to maintain your site’s voice and editorial standards, and keeps editors from having to make the same kinds of decisions over and over again—possibly coming to contradictory conclusions each time.
Build your own word list
