The New York Times
Style guide

Since 1895, The New York Times has maintained a manual of style in several forms. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage was published on the Times ' s intranet in 1999.

The New York Times uses honorifics when referring to individuals. With the AP Stylebook ' s removal of honorifics in 2000 and The Wall Street Journal ' s omission of courtesy titles in May 2023, the Times is the only national newspaper that continues to use honorifics. According to former copy editor Merrill Perlman, The New York Times continues to use honorifics as a "sign of civility". The Times ' s use of courtesy titles led to an apocryphal rumor that the paper had referred to singer Meat Loaf as "Mr. Loaf". Several exceptions have been made; the former sports section and The New York Times Book Review do not use honorifics. A leaked memo following the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 revealed that editors were given a last-minute instruction to omit the honorific from Osama bin Laden 's name, consistent with deceased figures of historic significance, such as Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, and Vladimir Lenin. The New York Times uses academic and military titles for individuals prominently serving in that position. In 1986, the Times began to use Ms, and introduced the gender-neutral title Mx. in 2015. The New York Times uses initials when a subject has expressed a preference, such as Donald Trump.

The New York Times maintains a strict but not absolute obscenity policy, including phrases. In a review of the Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up, music critic Kelefa Sanneh wrote that the band's name—entirely rendered in asterisks—would not be printed in the Times "unless an American president, or someone similar, says it by mistake"; The New York Times did not repeat then-vice president Dick Cheney 's use of "fuck" against then-senator Patrick Leahy in 2004 or then-vice president Joe Biden 's remarks that the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was a "big fucking deal". The Times ' s profanity policy has been tested by former president Donald Trump. The New York Times published Trump's Access Hollywood tape in October 2016, containing the words "fuck", "pussy", "bitch", and "tits", the first time the publication had published an expletive on its front page, and repeated an explicit phrase for fellatio stated by then- White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in July 2017. The New York Times omitted Trump's use of the phrase " shithole countries " from its headline in favor of "vulgar language" in January 2018. The Times banned certain words, such as "bitch", "whore", and "sluts", from Wordle in 2022.
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