day care (n.), day-care (adj.): She has a child in day care. He's looking into day-care options.
dean's list
decades—Decades may be spelled out (the seventies and eighties) or expressed in numerals with apostrophes (’70s and ’80s). Be sure to use an apostrophe (’) and not a single open quotation mark (‘): ’70s and ’80s, not ‘70s and ‘80s. (Notice, no apostrophe between the figure and the s. See plural figures and letters.)
decimal fractions—Use numerals. For amounts less than one, set with an initial zero: The average number of children born in 1991 dropped from 1.3 to 0.95.
degrees, academic—See academic degrees.
departments—Always spell out; do not abbreviate. Capitalize formal names of departments. Use English Department rather than Department of English.
dialogue (not dialog)
dietitian (not dietician)
directions and regions—"In general, lowercase north, south, northeast, northern, etc., when they indicate compass direction; capitalize these words when they designate regions: The cold front is moving east. A storm that developed in the Midwest is spreading eastward. It will bring showers to the East Coast by morning and to the entire Northeast by late in the day. She has a Southern accent.” (5) Capitalize these words when referring to widely known areas: Southern California, Western New York, Lower East Side of New York.
dissertation titles—Set in quotation marks with title caps. (See titles, composition and headline-style capitalization.)
(SUNY) Distinguished Professor—Awarded by the SUNY Board of Trustees, a rank higher than (full) professor. Always capitalized.
(SUNY) Distinguished Service Professor—Awarded by the SUNY Board of Trustees, a rank higher than (full) professor. Always capitalized.
(SUNY) Distinguished Teaching Professor—Awarded by the SUNY Board of Trustees, a rank higher than (full) professor. Always capitalized.
doctoral (adj.), doctorate (n.): He earned his doctoral degree in 1965. He has a doctorate in clinical psychology. But, juris doctor degree.
downtime
drop out (v.): I'm afraid she will drop out of school.
drop-out (adj.): The high school drop-out rate is rising.
dropout (n.): Though he was a high school dropout, he became a multimillionaire.
(5) The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2000), pp. 73–74
