Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A book giving rules and examples of usage, punctuation, and typography, used in preparing copy for publication.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A manual containing an organization's standardized usage conventions for how to write. All newspapers and other media have a stylebook, which is sometimes sold to the public. The stylebook usually includes which dictionary is to be taken as definitive for spelling.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

style + book

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Examples

  • They also segregated world news into a separate section, moved up the gossip to page 2, and their headline stylebook is all about how to inject “we”, “you”, “Minnesota,” and other “local spin” that the corporate media tries to pass of as news.

    Think Progress » “Liberal Fascism” Author Jonah Goldberg Now L.A. Times Op-Ed Columnist 2005

  • Lowercase bible as a nonreligious term: The stylebook is our bible.

    Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage PAUL R. MARTIN 2002

  • Lowercase bible as a nonreligious term: The stylebook is our bible.

    Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage PAUL R. MARTIN 2002

  • Yet unlike the AP stylebook, which is written in the tone of an unyielding grammar teacher, with rules pronounced from on high, Yahoo's guide is imbued with a keen consciousness of content users as well as content creators.

    CJR 2010

  • Raju Narisetti, The Post managing editor who oversees washingtonpost. com, says the "Standards and Ethics" segment of the stylebook is a "living document" that should be updated when online ethical issues arise.

    unknown title 2009

  • Raju Narisetti, The Post managing editor who oversees washingtonpost. com, says the "Standards and Ethics" segment of the stylebook is a "living document" that should be updated when online ethical issues arise.

    unknown title 2009

  • As for correct form, I suppose that you could call our Pope anything you want if this is approved by the anonymous author of some 'stylebook' you found in a garbage can.

    URGENT The "Reform of the Reform" is in motion 2009

  • Once a second skin for rockers like Robert Plant and Jim Morrison, leather pants have lost their place in the men's sartorial stylebook.

    Second Skin Steve Garbarino 2012

  • The Wall Street Journal style calls for inserting articles before product names, except in quotations, even if companies omit them, says stylebook editor Paul Martin.

    An Article of Faith for Marketers: Place No Faith in Articles Geoffrey A. Fowler 2011

  • State network RTVE lists its new ban on transmitting bullfighting programs under a chapter called "Violence with animals" in its latest stylebook, and says it "will not broadcast bullfighting."

    World Watch 2011

Comments

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  • "Stylebooks are useful for regularizing practice in spelling, capitalization, abbreviation, and a host of other mechanical details so that the reader is not distracted by inconsistent practice. And you want to maintain consistent practice for the ease of your readers. But it is a mistake to make idols of stylebooks, expecting them to substitute for judgment."

    – John E. McIntyre, copyediting guru, on his blog "You Don't Say": "Whatever" (15 July 2011)

    July 16, 2011