• Un-ionized

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: ?n-???n-?zd, IPA: en, /?n?a??na?zd/

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From , from ionize.

    Full definition of un-ionized

    Adjective

    un-ionized

    1. (chemistry) Not ionized.

    Usage notes

    At least one manual of style, and various publications' style sheets inspired by it, specifies the hyphenated style un-ionized among the alternative forms of this word, simply to avoid the homography with unionized as in "having a union", whereas there is no compelling reason not to avoid it. It is thus a rare exception to their general rule of preferring the solid form for affixed words by default, with exceptions only for clarity. Other words in this class are retreat versus re-treat, reformation versus re-formation, and recreation versus re-creation. The exception does not apply to any other forms of these words for which no ambiguity exists: thus, recreational and retreatment.

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