MAIN ENTRIES

A boldface letter or a combination of such letters, including punctuation marks and diacritics where needed, that is contained in the Main Entry field is a main entry. The main entry may consist of letters set solid, of letters joined by a hyphen or a diagonal, or of letters separated by one or more spaces:

Main Entry: ¹alone

Main Entry: au.to-da-fé

Main Entry: and/or

Main Entry: automatic pilot

The material in lightface type that follows each main entry on the screen explains and justifies its inclusion in the dictionary.

Variation in the styling of compound words in English is frequent and widespread. It is often completely acceptable to choose freely among open, hyphenated, and closed alternatives (as life style, life-style, or lifestyle). However, to show all the stylings that are found for English compounds would require space that can be better used for other information. So this dictionary limits itself to a single styling for a compound:

Main Entry: peace.mak.er

Main Entry: pell-mell

Main Entry: boom box

When a compound is widely used and one styling predominates, that styling is shown. When a compound is uncommon or when the evidence indicates that two or three stylings are approximately equal in frequency, the styling shown is based on the analogy of parallel compounds.

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