Style guide

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  • U - style guide illustrations

    uber

    no accent if you are saying something like uber-hip, but use the umlaut if you are quoting German

  • U-boat

  • Ucas

    Universities and Colleges Admissions Service

  • Uighur, Uighurs

    the Uighur people, particularly of the Xinjiang region in China

  • UK or Britain

    in copy and headlines for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (but note Great Britain comprises just England, Scotland and Wales)

  • Ukraine

    no "the"; adjective Ukrainian

  • ukulele

    not ukelele

  • Ulster

    avoid if possible but acceptable in headlines to mean Northern Ireland, which in fact comprises six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster

  • Uluru

    formerly known as Ayers Rock

  • Umist

    the former University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology merged with the University of Manchester in 2004

  • umlaut

    In German placenames, ae, oe and ue should almost always be rendered ä, ö, ü. Family names, however, for the most part became petrified many years ago and there is no way of working out whether the -e form or the umlaut should be used; you just have to find out for each individual

  • UN

    United Nations

  • UNAids

  • Unesco

    United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

  • UN general assembly

  • UNHCR

    United Nations high commissioner for refugees; not commission (although the name stands for both the high commissioner and the refugee agency s/he fronts)

  • Unicef

    United Nations Children's Fund

  • UN secretary general

  • UN security council

  • unbiased

  • uncharted

    not unchartered

  • unchristian

  • underachieve, underact, underage, undercover, underdeveloped, undermanned, underprivileged, undersea, undersigned, undervalue, underweight

  • underestimate, understate

    take care that you don't mean overestimate or overstate (we often get this wrong)

  • underground, the

    but London Underground for name of company

  • under way

    not underway

  • uneducated

    "with no formal education" may be more appropriate

  • uninterested

    means not taking an interest; not synonymous with disinterested, which means unbiased, objective

  • union

    lc when debating the future of "the union" (England and Scotland)

  • union flag

    not union jack

  • unionists

    (Northern Ireland) lc except in the name of a party, eg Ulster Unionist party

  • unique

    one of a kind, so cannot be qualified as "absolutely unique", "very unique", etc

  • Unite

    the UK's biggest trade union, formed in 2007 by the merger between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union

  • United Kingdom

    England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; no need to write in full: say Britain or the UK

  • United Reformed Church

    not United Reform Church, as pointed out on a wearisomely regular basis in the corrections column

  • universities

    cap up, eg Sheffield University, Johns Hopkins University, Free University of Berlin

  • University College London

    no comma; UCL after first mention

  • University of the Arts London

    comprises Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion, and Wimbledon College of Art

  • Unknown Soldier

    tomb of the

  • unmistakable

  • until

    not "up until"

  • unveiled

    pictures are, as are cars sometimes, but these days almost everything seems to be – so the government "unveiled a raft of new policies" (two cliches and a redundant "new" in six words) or a company "unveiled record profits". There is nothing wrong with announcing, reporting, presenting or publishing

  • US profit

    may be "posted" but probably not British ones

  • upbeat, upfront, upgrade, upmarket, upstage, uptight

    but upside down

  • upcoming

    the coining and, even worse, use of such jargon words is likely to make many otherwise liberal, enlightened readers (and stylebook editors) wonder if there is not after all a case to bring back capital, or at least corporal, punishment for crimes against the English language; an editor once told his staff: "If I read upcoming in the Wall Street Journal again, I shall be downcoming and somebody will be outgoing"

  • upmarket, downmarket

  • up to date

    but in an up-to-date fashion

  • US

    for United States, not USA: no need to spell out, even at first mention; America is also acceptable
    see America

  • USAid

  • user-generated content

  • utopian

  • U-turn

  • Uzbekistan

    adjective Uzbek
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