Storyline, story line, or story-line?

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Scott
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Storyline, story line, or story-line?

Post by Scott »

Which of the following are correct or incorrect?

1. The book has a great storyline.

2. The book has a great story-line.

3. The book has a great story line.


Please provide a citation or an explanation for your answers.
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Post by Espie »

Scott wrote: 09 Feb 2019, 15:53 Which of the following are correct or incorrect?

1. The book has a great storyline.

2. The book has a great story-line.

3. The book has a great story line.


Please provide a citation or an explanation for your answers.
I am inclined to say that sentences 1 and 3 are correct.

a. References that say the word is correct are the following:

Sentence 1: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dic ... /storyline (American), https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dic ... /storyline (British), and https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/storyline.
Sentence 2: None.
Sentence 3: https://www.merriam-webster.com/diction ... e#examples.

b. The following are the usage frequency data based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English website, https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/:

Sentence 1: 651 (37%)
Sentence 2: 22 (1%)
Sentence 3: 1,072 (61%)
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Post by Stephanie Runyon »

I have 3 grammar/spelling checkers that I tried this with. 2 say storyline. One said story line.
I don't know which one is correct
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Post by Stephanie Runyon »

Merriam Webster says story line
British dictionary says the storyline
Oxford language says story line
Grammarly says storyline
Scribens says story line
Online text editor says storyline

I don't have a clue the direction to go from here.
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

Mounce574 wrote: 12 Mar 2021, 05:25 Merriam Webster says story line
British dictionary says the storyline
Oxford language says story line
Grammarly says storyline
Scribens says story line
Online text editor says storyline

I don't have a clue the direction to go from here.
Any of these are acceptable since all forms of English are acceptable.
Life without a good book is something MrsCatInTheHat cannot imagine.
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Post by Manang Muyang »

Mounce574 wrote: 12 Mar 2021, 05:25 Merriam Webster says story line
British dictionary says the storyline
Oxford language says story line
Grammarly says storyline
Scribens says story line
Online text editor says storyline

I don't have a clue the direction to go from here.
Both are correct. Remember to be consistent, though! One reviewer got dinged because they used both spellings in the same review.
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