Word List

Alzheimer’s disease

African American, Asian American (no hyphens)

American Indian or Native American (conform to usage in cited research or source preference)

amid, among preferred (amidst, amongst in M-W as less common)

anesthesia, not anaesthesia (except in faculty titles or British spelling)

anti- close up in most cases; look in M-W and AP for exceptions and consider clarity for the reader

anticancer

Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI second reference)

attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

B cell (noun); B-cell (adjective)

Black, but white, brown

brainstem

CAR T-cell therapy, but CAR T cells

cesarean section, but C-section

COVID-19; COVID (all caps)

COVID terms: Default to long COVID. Other terms: post-COVID conditions, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), long-term effects of COVID, chronic COVID, post-COVID conditions (PCC)

CRISPR/Cas9

dataset

decision-making (in all uses)

Democratic senator, not Democrat senator

dengue, but Zika

DACA recipients; use Dreamers sparingly

dox, doxed, doxing 

eastern equine encephalitis (EEE); eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEE virus)

email, online, website

extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (not extremely)

fundraising

germline

google (verb); Google (company name)

health care, but childcare, eldercare

herpesvirus

house officer

Huntington’s disease

ID as abbreviated form of identify/identified/identifies in heads and decks

ID'd, but IDs

Immigrate to the U.S. [or other country]; emigrate from [country] to the U.S. [or other country]

LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer/questioning, plus); plus = other gender/sexual identities, such as intersex, asexual. OK to use a variant if a source requests it, in quoted material, or when writing about research that uses a different initialism

lifespan; health span; time span

Listserv (trademark of L-Soft International); use email list unless the software being used is Listserv

livestream; livestreaming

long-term; in the long term

Lyme disease

machine learning (n.); machine-learning (adj.)

Mother's Day (AP)

mpox (monkeypox)

non- close up in most cases; look in M-W and AP for exceptions and consider clarity for the reader: nonprofit

OB-GYN (obstetrician-gynecologist)

obesity/overweight (conform to usage in cited research or source preference)

older adult, older person/people; do not use elderly, senior citizen

opioid addiction, opioid use (not abuse), opioid crisis

organs-on-a-chip; [cervix]-on-a-chip

orthopedics, not orthopaedics (except in academic titles or British usage)

Patriots’ Day; Presidents Day (AP)

pediatrics, not paediatrics (except in academic titles, journal titles, or British English usage)

percent, not % (there may be exceptions for charts and the like)

phase 1, 2, 3 clinical trial (lowercase, Arabic numeral)

postdoctoral

preclerkship

pregnant woman/women; pregnant person/people; people who may become pregnant (conform to usage in cited research or source preference)

pre-pandemic

rainforest

reaccredit

rhabdovirus

RNA sequencing, but RNA-sequencing technique

sickle cell disease

standalone

State of the School Address

stem cell gene

subspecialist

suicide: do not use committed suicide; instead: died by suicide/took their own life

T cell (noun); T-cell (adjective)

television, not TV

they (singular, plural pronoun)

timeline

trans fat (no italics)

type 1/2 diabetes (lowercase, Arabic numeral)

underresourced

URiM (underrepresented in medicine)

U.S. for United States when preceding what it modifies: U.S. economy, but economy of the United States

versus; vs. in short expressions (guns vs. butter )

Veterans Day (AP)

vice chair, vice president

webpage

white, but Black

X-ray (adjective, noun, verb)

zebrafish