Stewart Clark (Assistant Professor)
Tel work: +47 73 59 52 45, fax +47 73 59 52 10 Email: stewart.clark@ntnu.no
English style
guidelines for authors of papers, theses, textbooks and other documents
At
NTNU, SINTEF, Statoil, and
most official bodies in
These
guidelines have been based on the usage proposed in the latest authoritative
dictionary of British English - The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998
(and other sources), selected ISO standards and standard practice in scientific
writing. Many of these issues are dealt with further in my book Getting Your English Right, 250 p.,
Tapir,
Note that these guidelines are
informal tips from me to help
colleagues at NTNU write better reports in English. These are not
official standards from NTNU.
Contents
Abbreviations, acronyms
·
An abbreviation may be formed from the initial letters in a phrase or
name and
is read letter-by-letter, like I,B,M
or A,S,A,P for "as soon as possible" in BE.
An acronym is a word formed from the
initial letters of other words and is pronounced as a word such as AIDS and
NATO. With familiarity, an abbreviation may change
into an acronym. An example is "U.N.E.S.C.O.",
written originally as initial letters with stops, and read letter-by-letter. It
has now developed into the acronym UNESCO.
Note that there may be differences between English and other languages here.
For example, "VIP" is read as a three-letter abbreviation in English,
not as an acronym as in Norwegian.
Abbreviations
formed from the initial letters in the names of companies, organizations and
states such as IBM, the EU and the
General abbreviations
Apart
from names, abbreviations are also formed by writing the first letter or a few
of the letters in a word, but these are read as a whole word. Examples:
"dept" (department), "assist" (assistant), "Fri."
(Friday) and "Mr" (Mister), "Dr"
(Doctor). In BE, abbreviations which end with the final letter of the
word do not have a stop, while those that do not end like that are followed by
a stop. Thus the "Reverend Doctor A. Smith" would be abbreviated
"The Rev. Dr A. Smith". Stops are usual after many such abbreviations
in AE, examples: "Mr." , "Ms." and
"Dr." Plurals of abbreviations are often formed with an "s"
as in: no., nos. (number/s); fig., figs. (figure/s); eq., eqs.
(equation/s). The plural of p., is pp. (pages). The
ISO standard concerning SI units states that units
such as cm, h, kg, km, m, and s
are to remain unaltered in
the plural and are to be written without a final stop (ISO 31-0:1992), see
Units, below.
·
Acronyms
An
acronym is written without stops and read as a word. Some acronyms are used so
much that it is often difficult to remember that they are acronyms. Examples
are AIDS (acquired immune deficiency
syndrome) and HIV (human
immunodeficiency virus). This may also lead to mistakes like writing
"HIV-virus". Most acronyms are written in capital letters, but a few
are in lower case and are scarcely recognizable as acronyms as they are treated
as everyday words. Examples of these are "laser" (light amplification
by stimulated emission of radiation) and "radar" (radio detection and
ranging). Market researchers love to produce acronyms like YUP (Young Urban Professional) that occasionally survive and
generate everyday words, written in lower case, like "yuppie" as in,
"Blair is yuppiefying the Labour party".
Some of the acronyms that are widely adopted are carefully chosen to make
suitable words that buzz like WASP
(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Most dictionaries on computing terms are full
of acronyms like GIGO (garbage in,
garbage out).
·
Non-English
abbreviations and acronyms
Norwegian abbreviations and acronyms like NTNU and SINTEF (Foundation for Scientific
and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology) are used in
English together with their English translations. This means that the correct
form of abbreviation for the
It
may be difficult for non-Norwegians to understand Norwegian
abbreviations/acronyms like "UFD", "NRK" and "LO/NHO".
In a web site or presentation, it is best to avoid such strange combinations of
letters. As abbreviations in one language often have no direct equivalent in
another, it is worth checking in a large English dictionary that abbreviations
exist before you confuse your readers with home-made abbreviations.
Apostrophe "s",
plural "s"
· Apostrophes are one of
the ways to indicate the possessive form. An apostrophe is placed before an
"s" for nouns that do not end in "s" (example:
· Possessives after
abbreviations/acronyms are written as follows:
"UNESCO's findings…"
· The possessive form of
numbers, as in "a 1990's model", is not to be confused with the
plural form of a number. Plurals have an "s" without an apostrophe
(example: "in the 1990s", "research developments in the 1980s
and 1990s").
·
Plurals of abbreviations/acronyms are written without an
apostrophe: "PCs, CDs", but single letters often have an apostrophe:
"Cross your t's and dot your i's".
Capitalization
·
In reports and theses, capitalize the following when they
are followed by a number or letter:
Appendix
Chapter
Equation
Figure
Reaction
Section
Table
Also
capitalize the following:
Ÿ
trade names and product names (example: Search Server)
Ÿ
the specific parts of a web site (example: FAQ)
Ÿ
the names of companies, institutes, universities,
associations
Ÿ
proper nouns for specific institutions (Example: European
Commission)
Ÿ
titles that are placed before a name (Example: Professor
Alan Smith)
Ÿ
proper nouns for specific location (Example:
·
In section, figure and table headings/captions, only
capitalize the first word and any proper nouns
Do not
capitalize:
Ÿ
e-mail, unless in initial position
Ÿ
elements like silicon and aluminum in mid sentence
Ÿ
the names of methods (apart from the proper noun part),
(examples: pattern recognition, Boolean value)
Ÿ
terms that refer to a general direction or a general
location (Example: northeast areas)
Contractions
In
research, business and academic writing, it is always recommended to avoid
contractions, unless one is reporting dialogue. Examples of contractions
include: aren't, don't, isn't, wasn't,
can't, weren't, weren't, wouldn't, doesn't, hasn't, haven't and couldn't.
Informal
letters to friends and even informal e-mails often use contractions to stress
the lack of formality, but elsewhere they are out of place as they appear
sloppy and even confusing.
·
Confusing contractions and their soundalikes:
·
it's (it is or it has) is often confused with the possessive its
Compare: "It's time to land" (contraction), "The plane
lost its rudder" (possessive)
·
they're (they are) may be confused with the possessive their or even the adverb there
(all of which are soundalikes)
·
you're (you are) may be confused with the possessive your ("You're late; has your watch stopped again?")
·
who's (who is or who has) may be confused with the possessive whose
Compare: "Who's driving to town?" (Contraction),
"Whose car is that?" (Possessive)
·
Remember that the apostrophe in the contraction indicates
that letters have been left out.
Currency units
· ISO currency codes (EUR, NOK, USD
etc.) are recommended (see Appendix B). These are to be written before the
numerical value (example: EUR 15 million). ISO
currency codes are best in written English but in oral presentations it is more
natural to refer to NOK as krone (never "N,O,K" or "crown"),
USD as dollar or US dollar and EUR as euro. (Note euro is not capitalized and the plural is euro.)
· The currency code is
always written first but never read first in English.
Written
English Spoken English
CURRENCY NOK 2 million Two million Norwegian kroner
EUR 55.50 Fifty-five
euro fifty (cents)
USD 25.50 Twenty-five US dollars fifty (cents)
GBP 3.20 Three
pounds (
· Do not abbreviate
billion as bill. or
million as mill. In the latter case
there may be confusion with milliard
or the French mille.
· The use of
"K" for "kilo" and "M" for "million"
before an ISO currency code (such as KEUR and MUSD) may be confusing. Write USD
25 billion, not KUSD 25 million; NOK
25 million, not MNOK 25.
Similarly an amount such as EUR
25 000, should not be written EUR 25k or EUR 25K.
Dates
· A date that is not in
all-digital format is to be written with the month in letters e.g.
· For all-digit dates,
the ISO complete representation for dates (ISO 8601) is the only format to use.
The model is 2004-12-02 (CCYY-MM-DD), note the
hyphenation and that (CCYY) represents a calendar
year, (MM) is a month, and (DD) a day within a calendar month.
· Serious
misunderstandings may result from not using this ISO format for digital dates.
Dates written such as
Equations
In
many major journals, the guidelines to authors suggest that:
·
Equation numbers are placed in round brackets.
·
References to specific equations are to be capitalized.
Many prefer the format "Equation (3.2)". Alternatives are: "Eq. (3.2)" or "(3.2)". Do not mix the
formats.
Exclamation mark
Norwegians
tend to use the exclamation mark ! (exclamation point in AE) too much in English. When
correctly used, an exclamation mark is there to stress a forceful utterance
that gives a warning or indicates astonishment and surprise: "Note that
cyanide gas can cause severe poisoning. Always avoid inhaling the gas!"
All
style guides in English agree that exclamation marks should be avoided in
formal English. A typical comment about exclamation marks is that "These
should not be used in scholarly writing" (Modern Humanities Research
Association Style Book, 1995). E-mails starting with "Hi!" are likely
to cause irritation in business life.
Figures
As
figures are visual, use the term figure for all non-tabular visual
illustrations.
In
many major journals, the guidelines to authors suggest that:
·
The captions are placed under/on the side of figures.
·
In a figure caption, the following model is recommended,
note the punctuation:
"Figure 2 Schematic representation…"
·
References to specific figures are to be capitalized. Many
prefer the format "Figure 2.1". Alternatives are: "Fig. 2.1. Do
not mix the formats.
Verbs
that are frequently combined with figure include: show, present, illustrate,
demonstrate.
Hyphenation
·
Use hyphenation in constructions
like:
one-dimensional
model
three-phase
alternating current
decision-making
environments.
There is
pattern here. The first two words function as an adjective together and are
thus hyphenated. If these adjectives were used at the end of the phrase, like "this
system is three dimensional", "environments for decision making", these same words function
as a noun phrase and are not hyphenated.
·
Do not hyphenate adverbs ending in -ly
when they are in this adjective position:
environmentally friendly solutions
·
Note that you can often distinguish between two meanings
of a word by a hyphen. Examples:
re-cover = cover again, recover = get well
re-sort = sort again, resort = holiday destination
· Note that American
English uses less hyphenation than British English.
·
Hyphenation should be used if the
second element is capitalized as in:
anti-American, non-DOS, non-European, mid-West.
Use
hyphenation with prefixes like:
all-
(all-star, all-time), ex- (ex-marine,
ex-works) and self-
(self-suggestion).
Proper names
·
Norwegian proper names in English
Although
some Norwegian proper names like Haltenbanken and Trondheimsfjord may
be understandable to most English speakers in this form, Halten Bank and Trondheim Fjord are the recommended forms (with
both words capitalized according to models in the The New Oxford Dictionary of English).
Problems arise when the generic part of the Norwegian proper name means nothing
to most non-Norwegian speakers as in Nidelva, Gudbrandsdalen and Briksdalsbreen. The solution is
to use River Nidelva,
Gudbrandsdalen Valley and the Briksdalsbreen Glacier in English, even though they
say the same thing twice to Norwegians. In running text, such
redundancies can be avoided by rephrasing, such as: "the valley is called Gudbrandsdalen" and "the glacier to the left is Briksdalsbreen".
·
Other foreign proper names in English
With world languages like Spanish it is
recommended to write just
Punctuation (stops and
colons)
·
ISO 31-0 recommends that commas are not used as thousand
markers in large numbers, use a space. Examples: 15 670 and 34 005 600 (this is
also the recommendation from the Norwegian Standard).
·
Do not use stops at the end of the line in section
headings. Example:
"Additional
elements in the Swedish model"
·
The decimal marker in English is the decimal point,
example: 31.313
(The only exception is in texts
that are to be included in an ISO standard[1]).
·
Use stops as follows in section/figure/table numbers:
1. 1.2 1.2.1
·
In lists with keywords, use a colon to introduce a list
and no stops after keywords in the list or at the end of the list of
keywords.
"…the
factors are:
n
age
n
education level "
·
In lists with sentences, use a colon to introduce a list
and stops after each sentence in a list.
Quotation marks
Quotation marks are a set of
punctuation marks that are either single
('
') or double
(" ") enclosing a quotation, a word or a
jargon-type expression. There are various typographical variations such as the
jagged version often used in Norwegian « » and various curly variations “ ” in
English. An alternative BE term for quotation marks is inverted commas.
References
There
are numerous ways of writing references in a text. One of the most common ways
is the "Name and year
system".
·
In this system the reference is placed in round brackets.
Example (Olsen 1994). Make sure the same format is used consistently. Not (Olsen, 1994) or (Olsen '94).
·
A page is referred to as (Olsen 1994, p. 12). Pages are
(Olsen 1994, pp. 12-34).
Place
references at the end of a document in a section called "References".
The term "Bibliography" is used for a list of selected literature.
This section is not numbered.
·
The English names of the institutions in your reference
list are found easiest by a search on the Internet. (Google's
search alternative called "I'm feeling lucky" often picks out the
home page of institutions.)
Referencing electronic
documents in English
As more publications and other documents become
available in electronic form, often without a paper version, this has created a
need to reference these electronic resources so that we can document our
sources. ISO 690-2 has addressed this issue (ISO 690-2: Information and documentation -- Bibliographic references – Part 2:
Electronic documents or parts thereof).
Electronic documents differ from printed publications
in a number of ways. First, online electronic documents have no page
references, volumes or edition numbers; sometimes the absence of publishers
means that there has to be a system of identification. The location of the
source of the document cited is also to be provided for online documents. This
information should be given by the words "available from" or an
equivalent phrase. Example: "Available from Internet:
gopher://info.lib.uh.edu"
Second, online electronic documents can be instantly
updated, which necessitates the use of "citation" in references. Citation
means the date on which the electronic document was actually seen. The word
"cited" or an equivalent term is written in square brackets in front
of the date. Examples:
[cited
Third, the type of electronic medium has to be
established in the reference list. This to be given in square
brackets. The following words or their equivalent should be used:
[online] [CD-ROM] [magnetic tape] [disk]
ISO 690-2 specifies a prescribed order for
bibliographic references to electronic documents.
Reference
to off-line electronic documents: PASSANO
E; IGLAND R T; MIRZA S;
LARSEN C M. In Petroleum
Abstract [CD-ROM].
Reference
to online electronic documents: TALKER, PETTER.
Stochastic resonance in the semiadiabatic
limit. In New Journal of Physics [online].
Available from Internet: <http://njp.org/>. ISSN: 1367-2630.
Spacing
·
Do not split a value and its unit over two lines. Example keep 2000 0C as one unit.
·
Do not use a double space at the beginning of a sentence.
·
Use a space before symbols like cm, m, km, %, 0C,
as in: 25 %,
300 0C.
·
Use a space on each side of a dash when giving a range: 30
- 40 mm. Note that when giving a range in English, between and from should
be followed by and or to, as in "between 1995 and
1997" or "from 55 0C to 85 0C", not a
dash.
· Separation of groups of
digits is to be in accordance with ISO
(31-0: 1992):
..."the groups should be separated by a small space,
and never by a comma or a point, nor by any other means." Use a space as a
thousand/-million/billion marker in large groups of digits in English.
RECOMMENDED PRACTICE
English other languages
Decimal marker 3.871 3,871
Thousand/million marker 3
871 3.871
Note that the Norwegian Standard recommends a space for the
thousand/million marker.
Some
guidelines suggest that numbers less that 9999 are written without a space and
the space separates numbers with 5 digits are more. Examples: 9999, 90 999, 1
900 999, 10 900 999.
Spelling
British
English (BE) is to be used, note that the dictionary for BE that Word is based
on is rather traditional this means some adjustments may have to be made to
follow the modern BE suggested in the Oxford Dictionary:
·
Use "-ize" and "-ization", not "-ise"
and "isation". Thus
"standardization" is the form to use. Note that this does not mean
that you can just use the "Find and Replace" command, as there are
several words like "advertise" and "devise" that have the
"-ise" ending in BE and AE (see Appendix
A).
Use
"coordinate…" and "cooperate", not "co-ordinate"
and "co-operate".
·
Contrast some typical British English spellings with the American
English counterparts:
BE AE
analyse analyze
centre
center
co-workers coworkers
metre (100 cm) meter
meter meter
practise (verb) practice (verb and
noun)
program (software) program
programme
(research, TV) program
sulphur sulfur
·
Some recommended BE spellings (The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998):
by-product
cooperate
co-workers
dependent (noun and adj., not
dependant)
e.g.
et al. (no
stop after et and do not use the
ampersand, as in & al.)
etc. (do not use etc. after introductory words like:
"such as, like,
including…". Never write
"and etc.")
i.e.
independent of
multidisciplinary, multipath,
multiphase, multistage, but multi-purpose
no. ,
(plural nos.). The # sign is only used in AE.
per (not pr.)
practice (noun)
practise (verb)
tonne, or metric ton (1000
kg)
Structure
In
a short report or paper:
·
Section is the highest level
unit. Section is also used for levels
2, 3 and 4, numbered as: 1.1
1.1.1 1.1.1.1
In
a long report, thesis or book:
·
Chapter is the highest level
unit. Section is used for levels 2, 3
and 4, numbered as: 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.1.1
References to specific sections are capitalized.
The best format is Section 2.1, not Sect. 2.1 (do not use "subchapters" or
"subsections"). Note that a paragraph
is usually just a few lines.
·
Appendices are to be numbered A,
B, C.
Reference
to Table 2 in Appendix B is written as
"see Table B-2."
Symbols and punctuation
signs on the Web and elsewhere
// double
slash, a single one is a forward slash
\ back slash (this is not used in Internet addresses)
11.5 (decimal) point in mathematics
stewart.clark dot (in e-mails and web addresses)
34·12 dot
@ at
" " quotation
marks
% per
cent (percent AE)
‰ per thousand
R&D and
(the sign is called ampersand)
* asterisk
13 -
45 dash
– en dash
— em dash
re-cover hyphen
˜ tilde
s underscore
Tables
Use
the term table for all tabular material.
In many major journals, the guidelines to
authors suggest that:
·
Captions are placed over tables
·
The following model is recommended, note the
punctuation:
Table 1 Common
terms for punctuation
!
exclamation
mark
? question mark
# number (only used in
AE, use No. in BE)
() brackets
(parentheses AE)
[] square
brackets
{} curly brackets
·
References to specific tables are to be capitalized. Many
prefer the format "Table 2-1". "Tab. 2-1" is substandard.
Verbs
that are often combined with table include: list, state, give, present.
Tone and sexist writing
·
If you are writing alone, avoid "the author
says", use either "I consider", or the passive "it is clear
that".
·
If there are two or more authors there is no problem using
"we".
·
"We" also means "the author and the
reader" and is a good device to get reader involvement.
·
Do not use "he" and "his" in a generic
sense. Example: "Is there a colleague who can present his
input?" (Use "his/her" or change to the plural).
Units
SI units are to be used
as these are the most widely accepted international symbols.
ISO 31-0:1992 includes the rules
for writing the international symbols (SI) for units:
· International symbols
for units are to be written in normal text (not italics)
· They are to remain
unaltered in the plural (cm not cms)
· They are to be written
without a final stop (except for normal punctuation)
· The unit symbols are to
be written in lower case letters except when the first letter is written in
upper case if the name of the unit is derived from a proper name:
ampere A
degree Celsius 0C
kelvin K
kilogram kg
hertz Hz
metre m
newton N
second s
The same ISO standard also
includes the rules for writing expressions for quantities:
· The symbol for the unit
is to be placed after the numerical value in the expression for a quantity,
leaving a space between the numerical value and the unit symbol (35 %)
· In accordance with this
rule, the symbol 0C for degree Celsius is to be preceded by a space
when expressing a Celsius temperature.
· The only exceptions to
this rule are for the units degree, minute and second for angles, where there
is to be no space between the numerical value and the unit symbol.
(ISO 31-0:1992, Section 3.4)
Web terminology
·
World
Wide Web (Norw. web, web'en) is a widely used information system on the Internet
which enables information to be accessed. Documents are marked by hypertext and
can be found by these links. The World Wide Web was developed by CERN in
·
Home
page (Norw. hjemmeside)
means the introductory starting page for a web site on the Internet where an
individual or organization gives the structure and links to other web pages and
web sites.
·
Web
page (Norw. webside)
means a document, which may contain many pages, connected to the World Wide Web
that may be accessed by others connected to the Internet: "Put a bookmark
on this web page".
·
Web
site (Norw. webadresse,
ansvarlig) means a location on the Internet where one
or more web pages are collected by theme or provider.
·
Webmaster (Norw.
webmaster) means a person responsible for a particular web site on the
Internet. The female version webmistress is not to be used in this particular context.
It is incorrect to
consider the -ize/ -ization
spellings as American English (AE) and the -ise/ -isation spellings as British English
(BE). The original spelling of words like criticize
in
British publishers that
use "-ize" include the Oxford University
Press, in all its dictionaries as well as those the International Organization
for Standardization stipulate as reference works for writing ISO standards: The Shorter Oxford Dictionary, The Concise Oxford Dictionary; Collins, Cobuild dictionary from 1996; Longman and
Penguin; and even the oldest publisher in the world, the Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge International Dictionary
of English (1995).
But before you throw
the -ise
baby out with the bathwater, note the following points:
-ize can now be said to be the standard spelling outside
Britain (and in European Commission publications) for verbs with endings
pronounced "eyes" such as: organize, symbolize, recognize. Adding -ize to create new verbs is standard and stresses
action: characterize, finalize,
hospitalize, prioritize and randomize. Some such verbs are
struggling to become accepted, and tailored
solutions are better than customized ones
in formal English. It is best to use such new verbs with care, as slim is better than slenderize and burgle
is better than burglarize. Some authors have produced home-made
horrors such as trialize,
costwize, piecewize and
elementwize
that have no place in formal English,
scientific reports or any serious writing.
-ise is always the correct
spelling in both BE and AE when the ending is pronounced "ice" or
"ease" as in precise and expertise. Some verbs that are formed
from nouns with -is- spelling, like
advertising and television, also only have -ise spelling
in both BE and AE. Examples: advertise, advise, arise, compromise, despise, devise, disguise,
enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, revise, supervise, surprise, televise.
-ization, -isation
The
rules for -ization/
isation follow the -ize/ -ise pattern
(see above).
Both
-ization and -isation are used in BE. Only the -ization
spelling is used in AE. As a result, all UN organizations, ISO - the International Organization for Standardization
and most of the international business community use the -ization spelling. However, much of
British industry and European Commission publications use the -isation spelling.
-yse,
-yze
-yse is always the BE spelling, as in analyse.
-yze is always the AE
spelling, as in analyze.
Some currencies and their
three-character ISO 4217 currency code. The ISO
Online home page (http://www.iso.ch/) refers
to sources of complete, updated
versions of this list.
AUD Australian dollar BRL
Brazilian real
CAD Canadian dollar CHF Swiss franc
CNY Chinese Yuan DKK Danish krone
DZD Algerian dinar EUR
euro
GBP British pound IDR Indonesian rupiah
INR Indian rupee IQD Iraqi dinar
IRR Iranian rial JPY
Japanese yen
KRW Korea won KWD Kuwaiti dinar
MXP Mexican peso NGN Nigerian
naira
NOK Norwegian krone NZD
New Zealand dollar
PHP Philippine
peso PKR Pakistan
rupee
RUB Russian rouble USD American
dollar
VEB Venezualan bolivar
Prefixes are extremely
important in helping you extend your technical vocabulary. Prefixes alter the
meaning of the words or roots to which they are attached. Here is a list of the
most common prefixes in technical English.
ante- before, pre-
before, post- after
to ante-date a sample - to determine the age by using
carbon-14 dating, for example.
pre-heated air - air which has been heated before being used
a post-mortem - an examination of a dead body
Other examples:
antediluvian ante meridian
pre-Cambrian pre-form
prehistoric post-glacial
post-orbital postpone
anti- against, opposed to
an antiseptic - an agent which destroys bacteria or stops their
growth
antibiotic antibody
anticyclone
counter- against
to counteract - to act against
counterbalance counterpoise
countersink counterweight
de- the opposite of, the reverse of
dis- the opposite of, the reverse of
im-/in-/irr-/un- not
to decontaminate
- to remove contamination from
to disconnect
- to cut off from
an impermeable
- not permitting passage of liquids or gases
an insoluble
- cannot be dissolved
an unconnected terminal
- a terminal which is not connected
Other examples:
decompose dehydrate
demagnetise
discharge
disinfect disintegrate
imperfect impracticable
impure infinite
inorganic irreducible
irremovable undetected
unstable
inter- between, mutually
intercontinental transport - transport between continents
interact interdependent
intermediate intermittent
macro- very large, micro- very small
macrocosm macrometer
microphone microscope
over- above
under- below
an overhead cable
-- a cable laid at least 2 metres above the ground
an underground cable
- a cable laid below the ground
overflow overpass
undercarriage undercoat
over- too much, under- too little
to overload
- to load beyond capacity
to undercompensate - to compensate
inadequately
over-estimate overwork
under-estimate undersized
photo- concerning light
a photometer
- an instrument for measuring the intensity of light
photolysis photo-sensitive
re- again, back
to re-connect
- connect again re-align
re-cover (cover
again), contrast recover (get better) re-heat
semi - partly
semi - half (mathematics)
a semi-permeable membrane
- a membrane which permits the passage of specific solvents
semi-automatic semicircle
semiconductor semisubmersible rig
sub- under, less than
super- over, more than
a subsea
vehicle - a vessel which can operate under water
in supersonic flight
- something flying faster than the speed of sound
sub-atomic sub-bandwidth
subsonic supercharge
supercool superimpose
tele- at a distance
a telemeter
- an instrument which makes measurements at a distance
telecommunications
telefax
(note this is usually fax in BE and often facsimile in AE)
therm/thermo- concerning heat
a thermocouple
- a device with two dissimilar metallic conductors at different temperatures
that induces an electromagnetic force
thermodynamic thermoplastic
trans- across, from one to another
transformer
- an apparatus for converting electrical
current from one voltage to another
transfer transistor
translate transmit
Numbers formed with prefixes:
uni-/mono- one bi-/duo- two
tri-/trio- three quad-/tetra- four
quin-/penta- five sex-/hexa- six
sept-/septa- seven octo-/octa- eight
nono-/nona- nine deci-/deca- ten
unilateral
- one-sided bilateral negotiations - two parties
to bisect - cut into two equal parts
a triangle
- a three-sided plane figure a quadruped - a four-footed animal
pentagon
- five-sided figure
unicellular unidirectional
binary trisect
quadripolar quintriplets
hexagon septagon
octagon nonagon
decimal decade
mono- single
poly- many
carbon monoxide - a compound of carbon and oxygen whose molecules
have one oxygen atom each
a polygon - a plane figure of more than four sides
monochrome monolayer
multilingual multiplex
polycentric polymer