outpatient
over, under—Compounds beginning with over or under are generally closed: overboard, overeager, overzealously, underreported, underhandedly.
P
part time (adv.), part-time (adj.): He works part time. She has a part-time job.
percentages—Use numerals. Use decimals, not fractions. Spell out the word percent (do not use the symbol [%] unless space is limited, as in tables or charts): 10 percent, 47 percent, 3.5 percent. For amounts less than 1 percent, precede the decimal with a zero: 0.8 percent.
periodicals, titles—Italicize. See titles, composition and titles, articles and features.
plural figures and letters—Add 's to single letters and to abbreviations with two or more internal periods; add s to multiple letters; add s to numbers:
- She received two A's and three B's. Mind your p's and q's.
- M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s
- The dorm had three RAs. The VIPs arrived early. Learn the dos and don'ts of Web page design.
- The school became coeducational in the 1960s. Among the scores were two 240s and three 238s. There were five size 7s. (See grades, letter and letters.)
p.m.—See a.m./p.m.
policymaker
possessives—The general rule for forming the possessives of singular common nouns—add 's—covers most proper nouns as well, including most names ending in s, x, or z: Burns's poems, Jones's reputation, Marx's theories, Dickens's novels, Margaux's bouquet, Descartes's work.
Exceptions to the general rule that form their plurals with an s' only:
- Names of more two or more syllables that end in an eez sound: Euripides', Ramses', Xerxes', Aristophanes'.
- Nouns (common or proper) that are plural in form but singular in meaning or whose singular and plural forms are the same: economics', politics', species', College Relations', the United States'.
- For...sake expressions: for goodness' sake, for righteousness' sake.
post- (prefix)—Generally closed, no hyphen: postbaccalaureate, postdoctoral, postimpressionism, postmodern, posttraumatic, but post-Vietnam. (See prefixes and suffixes.)
practicum (singular), practicums (plural) (but see curriculum).
pre- (prefix)—Generally closed, no hyphen: predoctoral, preeminent, preempt, premajor, premedical, preprofessional, preschool, preservice. Hyphenate with a compound modifier: pre-latency-period episodes. (See prefixes and suffixes.)
prefixes and suffixes—Most words with prefixes such as
- With proper nouns or numerals: mid-July, pre-Renaissance, pre-1920.
- As homographs: re-cover, re-create, un-ionized.
- In compounds in which the second element consists of more than one word: pre-latency-period, non-English-speaking, non-degree-seeking. When a prefix is added to an open compound, the hyphen becomes an en dash: pre–Civil War.
- With suspensive hyphenation: over- and underused, macro- and microeconomics.
- With some repeated vowels: anti-inflammatory, semi-independent.
- With misleading or awkward forms: pro-life, co-chair, co-worker, unit-wide.
Presidents Day (no apostrophe)
preventive (n., adj.)
prime meridian
printmaking (n.)
pro- (prefix)—Most compounds formed with pro that denote support for something are hyphenated. Some are closed. Consult the dictionary: pronuclear, pro-family, pro-democracy, pro-choice, pro-life, pro-American. (See prefixes and suffixes.)
punctuation—Generally, punctuation marks take the same style or font of type as the word, letter, character, or symbol immediately preceding them. Exceptions: A question mark or exclamation point that immediately follows an italicized title but is not part of the title should be set in roman type: When did she write Out of Africa? Plurals of italicized terms also set the s or es in roman type: She bought two Christian Science Monitors. Parentheses preceding or following italics are set in roman type: Hal Ashby films (Harold and Maude, Coming Home, and Being There). (See italicized words.)
push button (n.), push-button (adj.)
