http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/TDelaney/6661 “Wide” is a confusing suffix, those endings of words that define more closely what the word means. Ha! There, I have simply explained a suffix.   If you look up “suffix” in the American College Dictionary, Third edition, you’ll find this definition: “An affix added to the end of a word or stem, serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending, such as –ness to gentleness or –s in sits.”   Wow! Did you get that? What the heck is an “affix”? It means to put an ending to something. That’s all.   OK. Back to the point of this blog: -wide is a suffix that many don’t know how to attach to a word.   First, there is no hyphen involved when adding –wide to a word. For example, city-wide is incorrect.   All you have to do is attach the suffix. Examples: citywide, communitywide, nationwide, worldwide, countywide, countrywide, corporatewide, companywide, and many more.   If your spell check does not recognize these words, your spellchecker is wrong. You should educate your machine.   Got it? Get it? Good. I’m glad you got it audiencewide! “Wide” is a confusing suffix, those endings of words that define more closely what the word means. Ha! There, I have simply explained a suffix.   If you look up “suffix” in the American College Dictionary, Third edition, you’ll find this definition: “An affix added to the end of a word or stem, serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending, such as –ness to gentleness or –s in sits.”   Wow! Did you get that? What the heck is an “affix”? It means to put an ending to something. That’s all.   OK. Back to the point of this blog: -wide is a suffix that many don’t know how to attach to a word.   First, there is no hyphen involved when adding –wide to a word. For example, city-wide is incorrect.   All you have to do is attach the suffix. Examples: citywide, communitywide, nationwide, worldwide, countywide, countrywide, corporatewide, companywide, and many more.   If your spell check does not recognize these words, your spellchecker is wrong. You should educate your machine.   Got it? Get it? Good. I’m glad you got it audiencewide! en-us No one is two words I see it more and more in forums and blogs spelled noone. And many,many, even from talikng heads on national TV declare "I could care less" when what they mean is that there is no way they could possible care ANY LESS. And I hate to think about how many times I hear a TV newsperson say "The President, Senator whom ever invited 'My wife and I ' out for dinner. That right invited "I"out for dinner? http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/TDelaney/6661/#c_39283 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/TDelaney/6661/#c_39283 No one is two words I see it more and more in forums and blogs spelled noone. And many,many, even from talikng heads on national TV declare "I could care less" when what they mean is that there is no way they could possible care ANY LESS. And I hate to think about how many times I hear a TV newsperson say "The President, Senator whom ever invited 'My wife and I ' out for dinner. That right invited "I"out for dinner? An affix can be a prefix too.   That's what I tell my students.  Actually I say something like, "A few letters added or stuck (fixed) to the beginning or ending of the word that can change the meaning."  What's an interfix? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affix http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/TDelaney/6661/#c_40087 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/TDelaney/6661/#c_40087 An affix can be a prefix too.   That's what I tell my students.  Actually I say something like, "A few letters added or stuck (fixed) to the beginning or ending of the word that can change the meaning."  What's an interfix? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affix