So just how do you spell Anti-Virus, any way? On this 2nd day of the new year, I thought I would help clear up the all important question. Lets go to the pros and see what they say.

The case for antivirus

The CITES guide online recommends that “antivirus” be considered one word, but that “anti-spam” and “anti-spyware” be hyphenated. Princeton university says the same thing. There is a special case, notably symantec who refers to their product as AntiVirus. This is considered stylistically correct when ever referencing their product.

The case for anti-virus

a hyphen is defined as A punctuation mark ( - ) used between the parts of a compound word or name or between the syllables of a word, especially when divided at the end of a line of text. So, gramatically speaking anti-virus is correct. It does not in anyway violate the english language to write it that way. Style questions aside, this one passes the test.

The case for anti virus

In our case, the best definition of anti is “a prefix meaning against”. However, since anti is a prefix and does not stand alone as a word, “anti virus” is both grammatically and stylistically incorrect.

Have any other strange ponderings you want us to research? let us know!