UKLA = United Kingdom Literacy Association
under-
Compounds formed with the prefix under- are normally closed (CMS 17th, 7.89):
underdeveloped, underprivileged, underrepresented, underway
UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (www.unesco.org)
UNICEF = United Nations Children's Fund
Uniform Resource Locator = URL
uninterrupted sustained silent reading = USSR
unique, more or less, very, or somewhat
The literal meaning of unique is "one of a kind"; therefore, it makes little sense to describe one thing as "more unique" than another, or "most unique" among a group of things. Likewise, any attempt to enhance or strengthen the uniqueness of an object ("very unique") will be redundant (see absolute adjectives).
United Kingdom Literacy Association = UKLA
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization = UNESCO
United Nations Children's Fund = UNICEF
university/University
Capitalize only as part of the name of an institution: the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California. Otherwise lowercase: a university, the university
Unix
upload
uppercase (n. or adj; rarely, a verb)
upper class
upperclassmen
upper middle class (n., adj.)
up-to-date (adjective preceding noun)
URL = Uniform Resource Locator (plural is URLs)
URLs, style
- Effective July 1, 2007, ILA books and journals will no longer include "http://" when URLs appear in text or reference lists.
- Editors of other ILA documents may choose to include "http://" in URLs or to exclude it, but they should follow a consistent pattern in doing so (e.g., leave out the "http://" for URLs that begin with "www.," but include it for those that do not).
- URLs that appear in print should not be underscored.
- Where it is necessary to break a URL or an email address, no hyphen should be used. The break should be made between elements, after a colon, a slash, a double slash, or the symbol @ but before a period or any other punctuation or symbols. To avoid confusion, a URL that contains a hyphen should never be broken at the hyphen. If a particularly long element must be broken to avoid a seriously loose line, it should be broken between syllables. (See CMS 15th, 7.44.)
www
.salonmagazine.com
or
www.salon
magazine.com
US / U.S., USA / U.S.A.
- CMS 17th, 10.32 now allows use of US as a noun. The Style Guide group has adopted the following rule: Spell out United States as a noun upon first instance and use U.S. thereafter. Use U.S. with periods as well for adjective form.
- The abbreviation US (without periods) is used before a dollar sign to indicate U.S. currency. Thus, "The subscription price of the new publication is US$72.50 per year." (See CMS 17th, 9.21)
- The abbreviation USA (without periods) is used in addresses, where it follows zip code and comma: "Newark, DE 19714-8139, USA," and is used in affiliations within running text: "Author teaches at Smallville High School, Smallville, Illinois, USA." [Note that the state name is spelled out in running text.]
use (not utilize)
use-inspired (adj.)
user-friendly (adj.)
user group
username
USSR = uninterrupted sustained silent reading