A word list records how an organisation writes the words that cause hesitation: whether it’s “email” or “e-mail”, “log in” or “login”, which product and team names take capitals and which terms it avoids altogether. It usually sits inside a style guide, often arranged A to Z, and each entry gives the preferred form with enough context to apply it. A good list is local. It doesn’t repeat what a dictionary already says; it settles the choices where the dictionary allows more than one answer or where the organisation has reasons of its own.
Printers have kept lists like this for well over a century. Horace Hart of the Oxford University Press first issued his Rules for Compositors and Readers in 1893 as a small booklet for staff, and it grew over many editions into Hart’s Rules. Newspapers developed house style books for the same reason, and the Guardian’s online A–Z still settles questions such as whether to write “an” or “a” before “historian”.
Why it matters for content
Small terminology decisions recur constantly. Without a word list, writers look up or debate the same words again and again, editors correct them inconsistently and readers meet variation that suggests carelessness or, worse, that two words mean two different things. If a help article says “account number”, the form asks for a “customer reference” and the letter mentions a “membership ID”, people reasonably wonder whether they need three numbers. A word list turns scattered preferences into one place to check.
Good entries are short and practical. They give the preferred form, any discouraged alternatives, an example where usage is subtle and a link to related guidance. Many of the most useful distinctions are grammatical rather than a matter of taste: “log in” as a verb, “login” as a noun. High-use and high-risk terms deserve priority, since an exhaustive catalogue isn’t useful if people can’t find the decision they need.
Word lists matter most where the same concept appears in many places: interfaces, support content, legal text, translation and product documentation. Consistency there helps people recognise actions and reduces rework for translators. Lists also grow by accretion, so they need occasional pruning. An entry whose reason nobody remembers is either missing an explanation or no longer needed.
How AI changes the picture
A word list is one of the easiest parts of a style guide to turn into something a machine can use. Structured as preferred terms, alternatives to replace and the context for each, it can feed AI drafting instructions, automated checks and editing tools that flag “e-mail” or a retired product name as someone types. That moves the list from final review to the point of writing.
Automation also exposes weak entries. “Avoid where possible” may make sense to an experienced editor, but a system needs to know when it’s possible. Entries need context, exceptions and examples, or a checker will either nag constantly or replace words where the distinction mattered.
AI can help maintain the list as well, by spotting recurring corrections, inconsistent terms across a site or new words appearing in search queries and support tickets. People should decide which variations matter and whether a suggested replacement preserves meaning and inclusion.
Questions people ask
- What belongs in a word list?
Words people hesitate over or use inconsistently: compounds and hyphenation, capitalisation of product and team names, abbreviations, spellings with accepted variants, terms the organisation avoids and inclusive-language choices. If writers keep asking about a word, it belongs on the list.
- How is it different from a glossary?
A glossary explains what terms mean, usually for readers. A word list tells writers which form to use. The two often link, since a product term may need a definition in the glossary as well as an entry on its capitalisation.
- Should every entry ban alternatives?
Only where the alternative is wrong for the organisation. Many words depend on context, so explain the distinction rather than inventing a universal rule.
- Who maintains it?
Usually whoever owns the style guide, with input from subject experts, product teams, translators and the questions writers ask. Record why each decision was made, so the next person can tell a considered choice from an accident.
Learn more
- Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford – the 22nd edition of Horace Hart’s rules, free on Project Gutenberg; a house word list in its original setting, written for the people setting type.
- Guardian style guide: A – the first letter of the Guardian’s A–Z, from “a or an before H?” to how to write abbreviations and acronyms.
- Mailchimp word list – a brisk example sorted into standardised spellings, words to use carefully and words to avoid, deferring to the AP Stylebook for everything else.
- Microsoft Writing Style Guide – the online successor to the Microsoft Manual of Style, with an A–Z word list and term collections for writing about technology.