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According to Wikipedia:

The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing.

Merriam-Webster lists chat room as the main term, with chatroom as a variant. The Free Dictionary does the opposite. None of these sources elaborates on the difference in usage, if any, between the two terms.

Is there any difference between a "chatroom" and a "chat room"?

  • Is one term more correct than the other?
  • Should they be used in slightly different circumstances?
  • Which one is older, and which one developed from it?

Question inspired by @Slytherincess in a chatroom - or possibly a chat room.

Rand al'Thor
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    The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition contains the following on the hyphenation or otherwise of compounds:

    6.38: The trend in spelling compound words has been away from the use of hyphens; there seems to be a tendency to spell compounds solid . . .

     – Edwin Ashworth Mar 28 '16 at 22:10
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    @Close-voter: how is this "primarily opinion-based"? I'm always open to criticism, so please let me know if there's some way I can improve this question! :-) – Rand al'Thor Mar 29 '16 at 01:26
  • You might have to restrict it to one manual of style, a small selection of them, or if-and-where a consensus lies. Otherwise it's POB depending on which dictionary you're reading. The CMS is in a way just more opinions but at least it's a published, vetted and respected work. – Mazura Mar 29 '16 at 02:11
  • I suppose the question highlighted in bold at the time of this comment can be answered in a binary fashion (e.g. it's a matter of style, but they are equivalent). Which style is 'more correct' is then a matter of opinion. (I'm not the down-voter / close-voter.) – Lawrence Mar 29 '16 at 03:29
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    Possible duplicate of When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word? – curiousdannii Mar 29 '16 at 03:50
  • I've been waiting for someone to find the duplicate I remember. It doesn't address this particular example, but gives the general guidelines, which are not very rigid or predictable. Looking these things up is the only way to try to decide on which is most common, and even then it may not be clear. The question should be close-voted IMO, but it would take hours of debate deciding which reason/s applies/apply. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 29 '16 at 10:35
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    This doesn't seem "primarily opinion-based" to me. If the answer is that both are in widespread use and there is no difference, then that's an answer, not a close reason. Voted to reopen. –  Mar 29 '16 at 22:39
  • Stack that exists because of the belief that there's a standardized version of the language. Question put on hold because there's no standardized version of the word. – Plumbing for Ankit Mar 29 '16 at 23:14

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Both are all right. Time ago we used to write some nouns + nouns separated and then with a hyphen in between, but currently we tend to write them together.

Harry Wood
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