There is no real difference in meaning between nonprofit and not-for-profit. Both can be used to describe organizations that do not redistribute surplus funds to owners or shareholders. Nonprofit is about twice as common in U.S. publications, but not-for-profit is gaining ground because it more accurately reflects how these organizations work. Most nonprofit/not-for-profit organizations do make profits. It’s just that the profits are reinvested into company operations. [Read more...]
Nary a
The phrase nary a—which means not one, no, or not a and fits where any of those would work—derives from never a (via ne’er a). As it’s dialectal, it might be considered out of place in formal writing. Yet that doesn’t stop writers from using it in all sorts of contexts. [Read more...]
Fish vs. fishes
The plural of fish is usually fish, but fishes has a few uses. In biology, for instance, fishes is used to refer to multiple species of fish. The word also serves as the plural possessive for fish—i.e., fishes’. And of course, fishes is the present-tense verb (e.g., she fishes in the river). [Read more...]
Appositives
An appositive is a word or phrase that renames an earlier element in a sentence. Two elements that have this relationship are said to be in apposition. For example, in the following sentence, “the T.S.A. spokesman” is an appositive of “Mr. Fotenos” because the latter renames the former: [Read more...]
Grill vs. grille
As a noun, grill means (1) a cooking surface using parallel metal bars, (2) a device that cooks with a grill, or (3) a restaurant offering grilled food. As a verb it means (1) to grill, or (2) to question relentlessly. Grille, which is only a noun, usually means a grating used as a screen or barrier on a window or on the front of an automobile. [Read more...]
Adjectives
Adjectives are words used to describe or modify nouns—for example, red, quick, happy, obnoxious.
In terms of
The phrase in terms of is usually wordy for in or for. It works well when used to mean measured in units of or expressed by means of, but in most other cases in terms of could be shortened to a single word. [Read more...]
Dates and commas
Style guides differ on how to use commas with a month-day-year date (the American style) in the middle of a sentence, but the standard practice in U.S. publications is to place a comma after the day and another after the year—for example: [Read more...]
Trawl vs. troll
Trawl means to catch fish with a large cone-shaped net. Among troll‘s several verb meanings is to fish by trailing a line behind a boat. Because both words denote types of fishing—albeit different types—they are often confused. This is easy to avoid if you remember that trawl is only used in fishing contexts (except when used metaphorically) and always involves a net. [Read more...]
Meter vs. metre
For the unit of measurement equaling approximately 1.094 yards, meter is the American spelling, and metre is preferred everywhere else. The same distinction applies to the terms used in poetry and music—meter in American English, and metre everywhere else. Here’s the tricky part: For any type of device (i.e., an actual machine or gadget) designed to measure time, distance, speed, or intensity or to regulate current, meter is the preferred spelling everywhere. [Read more...]
