Op-ed

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Grammarist

Op-ed is an American term that is an abbreviation of two words, though the words involved may surprise you. We will examine the definition of the term op-ed, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.

Technically, the term op-ed refers to anything printed in a newspaper on the page opposite to the editorial page. In most cases, the expression op-ed is applied to an opinion written by someone who is not affiliated with the editorial staff of a newspaper, someone who is an outsider. An opinion written by a reader of the newspaper is known as a letter to the editor. An opinion written by a member of the editorial staff is known as an editorial. Many believe that the op in op-ed stands for opinion, but this is not the case. The op in op-ed is an abbreviation of opposite, and the ed in op-ed is an abbreviation of editorial. The term seems to have first been used in 1920 by Herbert Bayard Swope of The New York Evening World, though the op-ed in its current form first appeared in the 1970s. The plural form is op-eds. Op-ed may be rendered in lowercase letters or capitalized, as in OpEd.

Examples

The Op-Ed pages were born, in part, because of the closing of New York’s top conservative newspaper, The New York Herald Tribune. (The New York Times)

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was ghostwriting an op-ed with a Russian with ties to the Russian intelligence service while out on bail last month, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team said, CNN reported. (U.S. News & World Report)

A Nov. 16 op-ed addressed an October panel discussion centered around the various issues with the death penalty (“Addressing false assumptions about the death penalty”). (The Deseret News)