#Slash definition manual

Proper typography requires a more horizontal line and the numbers rendered using superscript and subscript, e.g. For sets, it usually means modulo ( quotient group). Used between numbers slash means division, and in this sense the symbol may be read aloud as 'over'. When marking an uppercase letter for conversion to lowercase, a proofreader will put a slash through it and write lc or l/c in the margin. They separate the comments with a slash called a separatrix. When highlighting corrections on a proof, a proofreader will write what he or she thinks should be changed-or why it should be changed-in the margin. The slash is also sometimes used to denote (often mutually exclusive) alternatives, such as in male/ female. 'n/a' and 'Language and Society / Langue et société'. (Compare use of an en dash used to separate such compounds.) The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing prescribes 'No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups which contain internal spacing', giving the examples

#Slash definition manual

The Chicago Manual of Style (at 6.112) also allows spaces when either of the separated items is a compound that itself includes a space: Our New Zealand / Western Australia trip. Exceptions are in representing the start of a new line when quoting verse, or a new paragraph when quoting prose. There are usually no spaces either before or after a slash. The Swedish census has come to a similar solution, using Assyrier/Syrianer to refer to the same ethnic group. census, reflecting the Syriac naming dispute. An example is the designation ' Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac' in the official U.S. The slash is also used to avoid taking a position in a naming controversy, allowing the juxtaposition of both names without stating a preference. The slash is used in some abbreviations such as w/ ( with) and w/o ( without). Other examples include b/w ( between or, sometimes, black and white), w/e ( whatever, also weekend or week ending), i/o (input-output), and r/w ( read-write). However, since other uses of the slash with individual characters are highly context-specific, confusion is not likely to arise. Purists strongly discourage this newer use of the symbol. The slash is often used, perhaps incorrectly, to separate the letters in a two-letter initialism such as R/C (short for radio control) or w/o ( without). In the State Department, the Office of Commercial & Business Affairs in the Bureau for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs is referred to as EEB/CBA.

government, office names are abbreviated using slashes, starting with the larger office and following with its subdivisions. For example, 'S/E' means 'single-engined', as a quick way of writing a type of aircraft. Many examples are found in writings during the Second World War. In an ordinary prose quotation, such a spaced slash is sometimes used to represent the start of a new paragraph.īritish English in particular makes use of the slash instead of the hyphen in forming abbreviations. When used this way, the mark is called a virgule. For example: 'Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks / But bears it out even to the edge of doom'. In this case, a space is placed before and after the slash. The slash is also used to indicate a line break when quoting multiple lines from a poem, play, or headline. The slash is most commonly used as the word substitute for 'or' which indicates a choice is present.Īdditionally the use of the slash is to replace the hyphen or en dash to make a clear, strong joint between words or phrases, such as 'the Hemingway/Faulkner generation'. The two slashes eventually evolved into a sign similar to the equals sign (=), then being further simplified to a single dash or hyphen (–). In the early modern period, in the Fraktur script, which was widespread through Europe in the Middle Ages, one slash (/) represented a comma, while two slashes (//) represented a dash.

The slash goes back to the days of ancient Rome. 2.14 Gender-neutrality in Spanish and Portuguese.