Headlinese

Headlinese is nonconversational, abbreviated writing style used in newspaper headlines.

Syntax

Because space is limited, headlines are written in a compressed telegraphic style, using special syntactic conventions:

• Forms of the verb "to be" are omitted.
• Articles are usually omitted.
• Most verbs are in the simple present tense, e.g. "Governor signs bill".
• The future is expressed as 'to' + verb, e.g. "Governor to sign bill".
• Conjunctions are often replaced by a comma, as in "Bush, Blair laugh off microphone mishap".

Headlines are generally sentences or noun phrases.

Short forms

Individuals are usually named by their last name only, with no honorifics.

Organizations and institutions are often named by metonymy: "Wall Street" for "the financial industry", "Whitehall" for the UK government administration, "Madrid" for "the government of Spain", the "Davos" for "World Economic Forum", and so on.

Headlines use many contractions and abbreviations: in the USA, for example, Pols (for "politicians"), Dems (for "Democrats"), GOP (for the Republican Party, from the nickname "Grand Old Party"), Govt for government; in the UK, Lib Dems (for the Liberal Democrats), Tories (for the Conservative Party). Some periodicals have their own distinctive headline styles, especially Variety and its entertainment-jargon headlines such as "Sticks nix hick pix".

Commonly used short words

Headlines use many short words that are not common in spoken English:

• chop
• confab (meeting)
• curb
• duo
• eye (consider)
• gal
• garner
• guy
• hike
• hit
• hype
• ink (sign a contract)
• lull
• mull (consider)
• nab
• nix
• parley (meeting)
• pen (write)
• pose
• probe [investigation]
• quiz [as a verb]
• rap
• revel
• rout
• see (forecast)
• slam
• stun
• temblor (hurricane)
• tout (endorse)
• unrest
• vie
• woe

Custom

The vocabulary and grammatical constructs used in headlines have become so culturally ingrained that they are often encountered even where there are no space constraints, for example in internet news agencies' headlines.

See also

• Headline
• Copy editing
• Corporatese
• Crash blossom, an ambiguous headline