Cancel, canceled, canceling, cancellation Only one" L" except in "cancellation"
Capital Describes money, equipment or property used in a business by a person or corporation.
Capitalization See Usage.
Capitol Capitalize U.S. Capitol and the Capitol when referring to the building in Washington, D.C. Follow the same practice when referring to state capitols.
Call to action No hyphens.
CATS Acronym for Charlotte Area Transit System. All caps. Spell out on first mention with acronym in parentheses.
Cellphone One word
Census Capitalize only in specific references to the U.S. Census; lowercase in other uses. Example: The census data reveals a need to redraw congressional districts. The U.S. Census took place in 2010.
Chairman Use chairman and not chairwoman in all cases unless an organization adopts chair or chairperson as an official title. Capitalize as a formal title before a name. Example: Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Jane Doe. James Smith is the committee chairman.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Capital C and M; hyphenate.
CharlotteNC.gov Note capitalization. Use this for email addresses, not ci.charlotte.nc.gov
Charlotte Observer See newspaper names.
Chief Capitalize as the formal title before a name; lowercase otherwise. Example: Police Chief John Smith. John Smith is chief of police for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
City Council, Charlotte City Council
City of Charlotte, City/city Capitalize when the phrase is used in full. Capitalize City when referring to the City of Charlotte as an organization or government entity. Lowercase when referring to the city in a generic sense. Example: The City of Charlotte unveiled its new recycling program last week. About 20 City staff were on hand for the ribbon-cutting. Charlotte is a city in transition.
City of Charlotte departments and abbreviations (if applicable)
- Animal Care & Control (ACC)
- Aviation
- Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS)
- Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT)
- Charlotte Fire Department (CFD)
- Charlotte Water
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee (CRC)
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD)
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (Storm Water)
- City Attorney
- City Clerk
- City Council
- City Manager
- Engineering & Property Management (EPM)
- Human Resources (HR)
- Innovation & Technology (I&T)
- Internal Audit
- International Relations
- Management & Financial Services (MFS)
- Mayor
- Neighborhood & Business Services (NBS)
- Planning
- Solid Waste Services (SWS)
CityLYNX Gold Line
Citywide/citywide One word, no hyphen. Capitalize when referring to the City of Charlotte as an organization; lowercase otherwise.
Example: Procurement practices are under review Citywide. The Democratic National Convention should have a financial impact citywide.
Commissioner Double M, double S. Never abbreviate. Capitalize as the formal title before a name. Lowercase in all other references.
Example: The media was on hand to get comments from Commissioner John Smith. Jane Jones, commissioner for District 2, was among those in attendance.
Committee Do not abbreviate. Capitalize only when used as a formal name. Example: Domestic Violence Advisory Committee
Company and product names For a company’s formal name, consult the New York Stock Exchange (nyse.com), Nasdaq (nasdaq.com) or American Stock Exchange (amex.com). Do not use a comma before Inc. or Ltd., even if it is included in the formal name. In general, follow the spelling and capitalization preferred by the company (eBay, iPhone). Do not use all caps unless the letters are individually pronounced (IBM). Others should be initial-cap (Ikea, not IKEA; USA Today, not USA TODAY). Do not use symbols such as asterisks or plus signs that could distract a reader (Yahoo, not Yahoo!; E-Trade, not E*Trade)
Composition titles (books, songs, radio and television programs, movies, etc.) Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters. Capitalize an article (the, an, a) if it is the first or last word in a title. In general, surround titles in quotations, with the following exceptions:
- games – computer games, video games, board games
- magazines – however, titles of magazine articles should be in quotation marks
- newspapers – however, titles of newspaper articles should be in quotation marks
- software
- speech names that aren’t actual titles, such as the State of the City address
- blogs – however, titles of individual blog posts should be in quotation marks (unless they are titled with dates only)
- names of websites
Compound modifier Two words that work together to describe a noun. Compound modifiers are hyphenated. Examples: part-time job, user-friendly website, light-colored sweater.
Congress Capitalize U.S. Congress and Congress when referring to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and if referring to a foreign body that uses the term or its equivalent in a foreign language. Example: Its business being done, Congress adjourned early.
Congressional Lowercase unless part of a proper name. Example: The hot topic this session is congressional salaries.
Congressman, congresswoman Use representative or senator whenever possible; otherwise, capitalize when part of a formal title preceding a name and lowercase in all other references.
Cost of living/cost-of-living Hyphenate only when used as a compound modifier. Example: The cost of living went up, but he did not receive a cost-of-living raise.
Council member Never abbreviate, and always use council member, never councilman, councilwoman or councilperson. Capitalize as the formal title before a name; lowercase in all other references. Example: Council Member Jane Doe voted in favor of the measure. But John Smith, at large council member, voted against it.
County/county Capitalize when referring to Mecklenburg County as an organization or government entity. Lowercase when referring to the county in a generic sense. See Mecklenburg County.
Example: Mecklenburg County will perform a revaluation in 2011. If your property is not within the county limits, your tax bill will not be affected.
Countywide/countywide One word, no hyphen. Capitalize when referring to Mecklenburg County as an organization; lowercase otherwise. See Citywide/citywide on this page.
Courthouse Capitalize all references to Mecklenburg County Courthouse. Lowercase is used in other instances.
Example: The courthouse near my house needs to be painted. It does not compare to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
Courtroom One word, no hyphen.
Curb It! program The City’s residential garbage, yard waste and recycling collection program.