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<h1 class="nist-page__title">NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 9: Rules and Style Conventions for Spelling Unit Names</h1>
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<p>The following eight sections give rules and style conventions related to spelling the names of units.</p>
<p><a name="91"></a><strong>9.1 Capitalization</strong></p>
<p>When spelled out in full, unit names are treated like ordinary English nouns. Thus the names of all units start with a lower-case letter, except at the beginning of a sentence or in capitalized material such as a title.</p>
<p>In keeping with this rule, the correct spelling of the name of the unit °C is "degree Celsius" (the unit "degree" begins with a lowercase "d" and the modifier "Celsius" begins with an uppercase "C" because it is the name of a person).</p>
<p><a name="92"></a><strong>9.2 Plurals</strong></p>
<p>Plural unit names are used when they are required by the rules of English grammar. They are normally formed regularly, for example, "henries" is the plural of henry. According to <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-appendix-d#06">Ref. [6]</a>, the following plurals are irregular: <em>Singular</em> —lux, hertz, siemens; <em>Plural</em> —lux, hertz, siemens. (See also <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-9#97">Sec. 9.7</a>.)</p>
<p><a name="93"></a><strong>9.3 Spelling unit names with prefixes</strong></p>
<p>When the name of a unit containing a prefix is spelled out, no space or hyphen is used between the prefix and unit name (see <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-6#623">Sec. 6.2.3</a>).</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr">
<p><em>Examples:&nbsp;</em>milligram <em>but not:</em> milli-gram kilopascal <em>but not:</em> kilo-pascal</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-appendix-d#06">Reference [6]</a> points out that there are three cases in which the final vowel of an SI prefix is commonly omitted: megohm (<em>not</em> megaohm), kilohm (<em>not</em> kiloohm), and hectare (<em>not</em> hectoare). In all other cases in which the unit name begins with a vowel, both the final vowel of the prefix and the vowel of the unit name are retained and both are pronounced.</p>
<p><a name="94"></a><strong>9.4 Spelling unit names obtained by multiplication</strong></p>
<p>When the name of a derived unit formed from other units by multiplication is spelled out, a space, which is preferred by <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-appendix-d#06">Ref.&nbsp;[6]</a> and this <em>Guide</em>, or a hyphen is used to separate the names of the individual units.</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr">
<p><em>Example:</em> pascal second or pascal-second</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="95"></a><strong>9.5 Spelling unit names obtained by division</strong></p>
<p>When the name of a derived unit formed from other units by division is spelled out, the word "per" is used and not a solidus. (See also Secs. <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-6#617">6.1.7</a> and <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-9#98">9.8</a>.)</p>
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<p><em>Example:</em>&nbsp;ampere per meter (A/m) <em>but not:</em> ampere/meter</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="96"></a><strong>9.6 Spelling unit names raised to powers</strong></p>
<p>When the names of units raised to powers are spelled out, modifiers such as "squared" or "cubed" are used and are placed after the unit name.</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr">
<p><em>Example:</em> meter per second squared (m/s<sup>2</sup>) The modifiers "square" or "cubic" may, however, be placed before the unit name in the case of area or volume.</p>
<p><em>Examples:</em> square centimeter (cm<sup>2</sup>) cubic millimeter (mm<sup>3</sup>)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ampere per square meter (A/m<sup>2</sup>) kilogram per cubic meter (kg/m<sup>3</sup>)&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="97"></a><strong>9.7 Other spelling conventions</strong></p>
<p>A derived unit is usually singular in English, for example, the value 3 m<sup>2</sup>·K/W is usually spelled out as "three square meter kelvin per watt," and the value 3 C·m<sup>2</sup>/V is usually spelled out as "three coulomb meter squared per volt." However, a "single" unit may be plural; for example, the value 5 kPa is spelled out as "five kilopascals," although "five kilopascal" is acceptable. If in such a single-unit case the number is less than one, the unit is always singular when spelled out; for example, 0.5 kPa is spelled out as "five-tenths kilopascal."</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr">
<p><em>Note:</em> These other spelling conventions are given for completeness; as indicated in <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-7#76">Sec. 7.6</a>, it is the position of this <em>Guide</em> that symbols for numbers and units should be used to express the values of quantities, <em>not</em> the spelled-out names of numbers and units. <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-appendix-d#03">Reference [3]</a> also requires that a symbol for a number be used whenever the value of a quantity is expressed in terms of a unit of measurement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="98"></a><strong>9.8 Unacceptability of applying mathematical operations to unit names</strong></p>
<p>Because it could possibly lead to confusion, mathematical operations are not applied to unit names but only to unit symbols. (See also Secs. <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-6#617">6.1.7</a> and <a href="https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/nist-guide-si-chapter-9#95">9.5</a>.</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr">
<p><em>Example:&nbsp;</em> joule per kilogram or J/kg or J·kg<sup>-1</sup><em>but not:</em> &nbsp;joule/kilogram&nbsp;or &nbsp;joule·kilogram<sup>-1</sup></p>
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