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So I've thought of a name for something, but cannot decide on how I should write it. In School, I vaguely remember someone saying "when you want to say something as one word, when it's really two words, then you hyphenate them", which leads me to believe I should be writing it like "Side-note". But How should you really write it, when it is going to be the name of something?

Are Sidenote, Side-note, and Side Note all correct? Which version should I use?

Arrow
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  • possible duplicate of To hyphenate or not?. I actually think this is Not Constructive, since there's no absolute rule about which pairings can be joined into a single word or hyhenated, and it's pointless having "votes" here about each specific case. Follow a style guide if you have one, or search Google Books and copy whatever the majority do. Or just make your own decision. – FumbleFingers Nov 14 '12 at 00:26
  • @FumbleFingers: So, basically what you're saying is that neither of the choices in my question are incorrect? Also, I don't care about the voting system, or what the majority of others are doing, I care about using the correct version, and if none of them are incorrect, then you could've just said so, and used that as an answer. – Arrow Nov 14 '12 at 00:32
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    That wasn't exactly what I meant, but after following my own advice, I'll just note that "as a side note" is about 30 times more common in Google Books than the single-word version. GB indexes hyphens as spaces, but if you follow that link I think you'll agree most people don't hyphenate it. I don't actually understand why you're including variable capitalisation here. – FumbleFingers Nov 14 '12 at 00:37
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    @F: Looks like three versions of title case to me. There's actually a 4th: "Side-Note", and whether this one or "Side-note" is "correct" is a matter of which style manual is used. –  Nov 14 '12 at 02:43
  • Possible duplicate of "Sidenote for Mac" – Jim Nov 14 '12 at 07:33

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From Merriam-Webster's 3rd Unabridged:

Main Entry : sidenote
Function:noun
: a note of reference that is set in the side margin or a page usually in smaller type than the text

This is standard American English.