A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
race card
as in “play the race card”; has become a cliche, especially at election times when someone is certain to be accused of it
racecard
lists racehorses at a racetrack
race-fixing
RAC Foundation
should be described on first mention as a pro-motoring thinktank
racial terminology
A person’s race should only be included if relevant to the story. The words black and Asian should not be used as nouns, but as adjectives: black people rather than “blacks”, an Asian woman rather than “an Asian”, etc.
Say African-Caribbean rather than Afro-Caribbean.
Use the word “immigrant” with great care, not only because it is often incorrectly used to describe people who were born in Britain, but also because it has been used negatively for so many years. If relevant, say people are “children of immigrants”, not “second-generation immigrants”
rack or wrack?
You rack your brains, face rack and ruin, and are racked with guilt, shame or pain; wrack is seaweed
rackets
not racquets, except in club titles
Rada
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 Extra, 5 Live, 6 Music
radiographer
takes medical images
radiologist
reads them
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Irish public broadcasting corporation
radius
plural radii
raft
something Huck Finn and Jim were on when they floated down the river; do not say “a raft of measures”, which has very rapidly become a cliche (particularly in political reporting)
Raid
redundant array of independent disks (data storage)
railway station
train station is acceptable, indeed more widely used nowadays, although it still sounds wrong to some older British readers (and writers)
Rainbows
for girls from five (four in Northern Ireland) to seven, at which point they may become Brownies
raincoat, rainfall, rainproof, rainwater
but rain check
Ramadan
month of fasting for Muslims
Ramblers, the
formerly known as the Ramblers’ Association
Ramsay, Gordon
ex-footballing chef; note that England’s World Cup-winning manager in 1966 was Alf Ramsey
Ramsay Street
where Neighbours become good friends
R&B
whether you are listening to Bo Diddley or Beyoncé, although only the former style should be referred to as rhythm and blues
Range Rover
no hyphen
Rangers
not Glasgow Rangers
Rangoon
is now Yangon
rarefy, rarefied
rateable
rating agency
not ratings
ravage or ravish?
To ravage is to destroy or severely damage something. To ravish, confusingly, can mean one of two distinct things: to seize someone and carry them off, or to enrapture. The OED gives examples, both from the 1990s, of a child being ravished by a lion and a wine lover being ravished by a glass of chablis
Rawlplug
TM
Ray-Ban
TM; it’s OK to call them Ray-Bans
razzmatazz
re/re-
Use re- (with hyphen) when followed by the vowels e or u (not pronounced as “yu”): eg re-entry, re-examine, re-urge.
Use re (no hyphen) when followed by the vowels a, i, o or u (pronounced as “yu”), or any consonant: eg rearm, rearrange, reassemble, reiterate, reorder, reread, reuse, rebuild, reconsider, retweet.
Exceptions (where confusion with another word would arise): re-cover/recover, re-creation/recreation, re-form/reform, re-sent/resent, re-sign/resign
realpolitik
rear admiral
Rear Admiral Horatio Hornblower at first mention, thereafter Adm Hornblower in leading articles, otherwise just Hornblower
rebut, refute or repudiate?
To rebut is to contest or deny something; to refute is to prove that it’s wrong. So when a politician claims to have refuted an allegation, what they mean is rebut. To repudiate someone is to disown them.
If you don’t know the difference, you could always try “refudiate”, a word coined by Sarah Palin, perhaps inspired by George W Bush’s “misunderestimate”
received pronunciation (RP)
a traditionally prestigious accent, associated with private schools and used by an estimated 3% of the population of England, also known as BBC English, Oxford English or the Queen’s English; nothing to do with Standard English, which includes written as well as spoken language and can be (indeed, normally is) spoken with a regional accent
recent
avoid: if the date is relevant, use it
recourse, resource or resort?
You might have recourse to your mother to comfort you when your hamster dies. She would, therefore, be a resource you could turn to. As a last resort, you might resort to your brother as well
recur
not reoccur
Red Crescent, Red Cross
redbrick
university; the original six were Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield
redshirts
formally known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), they were at the forefront of protests against the Thai government in 2010; their opponents, loyal to the Bangkok regime, were the yellowshirts
redundancy
Strictly (and in legal terms) jobs, rather than people, are made redundant.
From a reader: “Please could the Guardian set an example to all journalists by saying that 1,028 jobs were made redundant, not 1,028 staff? That subtle difference can make a big difference to the self-respect of the people whose jobs have been made redundant, and, in my experience (four redundancies) to the attitude of future employers too”
referendum
plural referendums, not referenda
reforestation
not reafforestation
re-form
to form again
reform
to change for the better. We should not take the initiators’ use of the word at its face value, particularly in cases where we believe no improvement is likely. The latest set of changes to education or the health service may, or may not, be reforms
refugee
According to the Refugee Council, a refugee is defined as “a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”.
The Refugee convention of 1951 is the key legal document in defining who is a refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of states towards refugees
refute
This much abused word should be used only when an argument is disproved; otherwise contest, deny, rebut
regalia
plural, of royalty; “royal regalia” is tautologous
regard
with regard to, not with regards to (but of course you give your regards to Broadway)
Regent’s Park
in London
regime
no accent
regional assemblies
abolition of the eight bodies representing English regions outside London, along with the regional development agencies, was announced in 2010
register office
not registry office – the first thing reporters used to be taught on local newspapers, although you still see the mistake
registrar general
regrettably
unfortunately; regretfully with regret
reign or rein?
A ruler reigns, but a horse is reined in
reinstate
religious right
Remembrance Sunday
Renaissance, the
reopen
repellant
noun, repellent adjective: you fight repellent insects with an insect repellant
repertoire
an individual’s range of skills or roles
repertory
a selection of works that a theatre or dance company might perform
replaceable
report
the Lawrence report, etc; use report on or inquiry into but not report into, ie not “a report into health problems”
reported speech
When a comment in the present tense is reported, use past tense: “She said: ‘I like chocolate’” (present tense) becomes in reported speech “she said she liked chocolate”.
When a comment in the past tense is reported, use “had” (past perfect tense): “She said: ‘I ate too much chocolate’” (past tense) becomes in reported speech “she said she had eaten too much chocolate” (not “she said she ate too much chocolate”).
Once it has been established who is speaking, there is no need to keep attributing, so long as you stick to the past tense: “Alex said he would vote Labour. There was no alternative. It was the only truly progressive party,” etc
republicans
lowercase (except for US and other political parties)
Reserve Bank of Australia
the reserve bank or RBA after first mention
residents
has a rather old-fashioned feel to it, especially in the deadly form “local residents”; on the whole, better to call them people
resistance, resistance fighters
See terrorism/terrorists
respective
unnecessary in a sentence such as “Smith and Jones spoke on behalf of their respective constituencies”; essential in “Smith and Jones represented the constituents of Dorset North and Dorset South respectively”
restaurateur
not restauranteur
résumé
retail prices index (RPI)
prices not price, but normally no need to spell it out. No longer the official measure of inflation (that is the consumer price index), but still used for uprating pensions and other state benefits
Rethink
formerly the National Schizophrenia Fellowship
reticent
unwilling to speak; do not confuse with reluctant, as in this example from the paper: “Like most graduates of limited financial means, Louise Clark was reticent about handing over a huge wad of dosh”
Réunion
French island in the Indian Ocean; not La Réunion
Reuters
the Rev
at first mention, thereafter use courtesy title: eg the Rev Joan Smith, subsequently Ms Smith if honorific is needed; never say “Reverend Smith”, “the Reverend Smith” or “Rev Smith”
reveille
Revelation
last book in the New Testament: not Revelations, a very common error; its full name is The Revelation of St John the Divine
Revenue & Customs
or HMRC: either is acceptable shorthand for HM Revenue and Customs, formed in 2005 from a merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise
Revolutionary Guards
(plural) in Iran. The official name is Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution; “Revolutionary Guard” is meaningless in Iran.
In Libya, however, Muammar Gaddafi had his very own Revolutionary Guard (singular), now disbanded. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein also had one
Rheims
rheumatoid arthritis
not rheumatism or arthritis, but can be abbreviated to RA after first mention
Rhodes scholar
RIBA, the
the Royal Institute of British Architects
Rice, Condoleezza
rice paddies
tautologous, as padi is the Malay word for rice; so it should be paddy fields or simply paddies
Richmond
historic town in North Yorkshire.
We sometimes confuse the parliamentary constituency of Richmond with that of Richmond Park, in south-west London, suggesting that the north of England is a faraway country of which we know little and care less
Richter scale
expresses the magnitude of an earthquake, but scientists no longer use Richter’s methodology as it does not work for large quakes or ones where the epicentre is farther than 600km away.
It was superseded in 1979 by the more uniformly applicable moment magnitude scale. So we talk about “an earthquake of magnitude 7.2” or whatever it is
rickety
ricochet, ricocheted, ricocheting
ridden, riddled or raddled?
crime-ridden, disease-ridden; riddled with errors, riddled with bullets; a raddled appearance
riffle
to flick through a book, newspaper or magazine; often confused with rifle, to search or ransack and steal from, eg rifle goods from a shop
right now
adds nothing, and should normally be deleted.
We asked: “Who are the most powerful people in the UK media right now?”
“Who are the most powerful people in the UK media?” would have had just as much impact, and been much less annoying
right to buy, help to buy, buy to let
no initial caps; hyphenate before a noun, eg right-to-buy scheme, help-to-buy programme, buy-to-let mortgages
right wing, the right, rightwinger
nouns
rightwing
adjective
Riley
as in “living the life of Riley”, defined by the OED as “an enviably enjoyable, luxurious or carefree existence”
RIM
abbreviation for Research In Motion, the BlackBerry company
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
not Rhyme
ringfence, ringtone
riot grrrl
risque
no accent
riverbank, riverbed
rivers
The “river” part comes first in the names of British rivers: river Severn, river Thames, etc; elsewhere, it normally comes second: Amazon river, Hudson river, Yangtze river, etc.
Most of the time it can be left out altogether, however: Amazon, Thames, Yangtze, etc
riveted, riveting
RNIB
Royal National Institute of Blind People (no longer “the Blind”)
RNID
the Royal National Institute for Deaf People changed its name to Action on Hearing Loss in June 2011
roadmap
has become a cliche unless you are literally talking about a map
roadside
rob
you rob a person or a bank, using force or the threat of violence; but you steal a car or a bag of money
Rock
cap if referring to Gibraltar
rock’n’roll
one word
Rodgers, Richard
composer known for his Broadway musical partnerships with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II
Rogers, Richard
British architect, Lord Rogers on second mention, thereafter just Rogers
role
no accent
Rollerblade
TM; say inline skates
rollercoaster
one word
rollover
noun (as in lottery rollover)
Rolls-Royce
Roman Catholic
The archbishop of Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, St Andrew’s, Southwark and Westminster: it is not normally necessary to say Roman Catholic (as there is no Anglican equivalent).
The Roman Catholic bishop of Aberdeen, Argyll, Lancaster, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Shrewsbury (for all of which there are Anglican bishops).
Unless obviously Roman Catholic from the context, say the Roman Catholic bishop of Brentwood, Clifton, Dunkeld, Galloway, Hexham and Newcastle, Leeds, Menevia, Middlesbrough, Motherwell, Northampton, Nottingham, Paisley and Salford.
In a UK setting use Roman Catholic in describing Roman Catholic organisations and individuals and wherever an Anglican could argue ambiguity (eg “the Catholic church”). But Catholic is enough in most overseas contexts, eg Ireland, France, Italy, Latin America
Romania
Romany
noun, adjective; Roma plural
romcom
Romeo
cap up, whether referring to Juliet’s boyfriend or using generically (“he’s the office Romeo”)
roofs
plural of roof (not rooves, which has appeared in the paper)
Rooney, Coleen
not Colleen
ro-ro
roll-on, roll-off ferry
Rorschach test
psychological test based on the interpretation of inkblots
rosé
wine
rottweiler
rouble
roughshod
roundtable
(adjective); round table (noun): you might hold roundtable discussions at a round table
round up
verb; roundup noun
routeing or routing?
They are routeing buses through the city centre after the routing of the protesters
Rovers Return, the
(no apostrophe) Coronation Street’s pub; it sells Newton & Ridley beer
Royal Academy of Arts
usually known simply as the Royal Academy
Royal Air Force
or RAF
Royal Ballet
Royal Botanic Garden
(Edinburgh)
Royal Botanic Gardens
(London), also known as Kew Gardens or simply Kew
Royal College of Surgeons
the college or the royal college is preferable to the RCS on subsequent mention
royal commission
Royal Courts of Justice
royal family
Royal Institute of International Affairs
also known as Chatham House
Royal Logistic Corps
not Logistics
Royal London hospital
Royal Mail
for the company, not “the Royal Mail”
Royal Marines
marines after first mention
Royal Military Police
Royal Navy
or the navy
Royal Opera, Royal Opera House
royal parks
Royal Society of Arts
RSA after first mention; its full name is Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
RSPB, RSPCA
do not normally need to be spelt out, but our readers outside the UK deserve a brief explanation of what they are
rubber
strictly, a series of card games or sporting encounters, not an individual match; so if (say) Great Britain’s tennis team lost the first three matches of a five-match Davis Cup tie, you would have a dead rubber (but it would be wrong to call the fourth or fifth matches “dead rubbers”)
Rubens, Peter Paul
(1577-1640) Flemish painter
Rubicon
as in Clegg crossed his personal Rubicon
rugby league, rugby union
rulebook
Rule, Britannia!
runner-up
run off, run up
verbs
runoff, run-up
nouns
rupee
Indian currency
rupiah
Indonesian currency
Russian Revolution
Russian roulette
