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Capitalization Of Internet
Capitalization Of Internet – There is continual debate around whether the word Internet should continue to be capitalized since it has established itself into everyday life. Since the AP Stylebook announcement in 2016, the trend across style guides has been to lowercase the word internet. Historically, the word internet was capitalized since it is a proper noun, but in the last few years the trend has been to lowercase the word internet since it is now a general noun.
In fact, the UK has mostly transitioned to referring the to Internet with a lowercase “i” as you can see in this study done by Oxford Dictionaries. In the US, about 65% of the population refers to Internet with a capital “I” versus in the UK, only about 25% of the population uses a capital “I.” In fact, the earliest use of the word, cited in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1974, was with a lowercase i since at that time there were multiple internets.
Should internet Be Capitalized
There are no hard and fast rules about capitalizing ‘internet’, then. However, if you want to capitalize it, keep the following in mind:
- You can capitalize ‘Internet’ when it refers to the infrastructure that hosts the World Wide Web, but this is a matter of choice.
- Do not capitalize ‘internet’ when using it as a noun adjunct to modify another noun (e.g. ‘internet users’ or ‘internet browser’).
- Do not capitalize this term when referring to internetworking in general.
- If you are writing for your studies or job, you may have a style guide available. Check this for advice on capitalization.
- Make sure to apply capitalization consistently in your writing.
Internet as a Proper Name
Unless it appears at the start of a sentence, you should only capitalize ‘Internet’ when it is a noun. More specifically, you can capitalize it when referring to the Internet (i.e. the thing that hosts the World Wide Web). Thus, ‘Internet’ is a proper name, a word that names a unique thing. So ‘the Internet’ is like the name of a person (e.g. Delia) or city (e.g. Brisbane).
Using a capital ‘I’ was common in the early days of the Web, especially in technical writing. However, as the internet has become part of our lives, most people now write it with a lower-case ‘i’ instead. Dialect can make a difference, too, as capitalizing ‘Internet’ is more common in American English than Australian English. Ultimately, though, it is a matter preference. For instance, both of these sentences are fine: I looked up advice on the Internet. The internet is full of contradictory advice. The most important thing is consistency. So if you write ‘Internet’ in one part of a document, you should use the same capitalization throughout. You may also want to check your university/employer’s style guide. However, there are a couple of situations where you should never capitalize this term. We will look at each of the following below:
- Using ‘internet’ to refer to interconnected networks in general.
- Using ‘internet’ as an adjective.
Internet as a Common Noun
The word ‘internet’ is a contraction of ‘interconnected network’. We can therefore use it to describe any set of interconnecting networks. And when referring to interconnected networks in general, we do not capitalize ‘internet’ because it is a common noun rather than a proper name.
In other words, while the Internet is an internet, it is not the only possible internet! If you are involved with computers in your work or studies, then, you would not capitalize ‘internet’ if you were using it in this generic sense. However, in day-to-day life, ‘internet’ almost always refers to the internet.
Adjectival Internets
We can also use ‘internet’ like an adjective. For example: My internet connection has dropped out again. Here, the word ‘internet’ modifies the noun ‘connection’. This means we’ve used it like an adjective (something known as a noun adjunct). Typically, when ‘internet’ is used as a modifier like this, you do not need to capitalize it.
Conclusion
You can capitalize the ‘I’ in ‘internet’ if you are using it as a proper name, but this is a matter of choice.
