ORDER OF MAIN ENTRIES

The main entries follow one another in alphabetical order letter by letter without regard to intervening spaces or hyphens: battle royal follows battlement and earth-shattering follows earthshaking. Those containing an Arabic numeral are alphabetized as if the numeral were spelled out: 3-D comes between three-color and three-decker. Those that often begin with the abbreviation St. in common usage have the abbreviation spelled out: Saint Anthony's fire.

Full words come before parts of words made up of the same letters. Solid compounds come first and are followed by hyphenated compounds and then open compounds. Lowercase entries come before entries that begin with a capital letter:

Main Entry: semi

Main Entry: semi-

Main Entry: take.out

Main Entry: take-out

Main Entry: take out

Main Entry: tim.o.thy

Main Entry: Tim.o.thy

 

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