Single-player, singleplayer or single player?

[Hipshot]

Wikipedia says:

Single Player and Multiplayer.

I'm gonna belive that until someone come with better answers.

[ginsengavenger]

(because wikipedia is infallible)

but yeah they're probably right.

[Thrik]

The problem with English is that when a term is used a lot, people start to shorten it for ease and that new term gradually becomes part of the language. It's an evolving language, and doing this is actually valid by the textbooks. A hyphenated word which is used very commonly can have the hyphen legitimately dropped.

An example is with "multiplayer". From a textbook perspective, that should always be written as "multi-player", where "multi-" is by definition the special prefix version of "multiple". However, since the term is used so often, the hyphen has just ended up dropped by pretty much everybody. But it's still valid.

The distinction is that while "multiple" has a special version for use when prefixing, "single" has no such variant. As such, you have to use the term in both a prefix and adjective context.

I guess it all comes down to whether you think of "single" in the context "single player" as a prefix or an adjective. If it's an adjective, then "single player" is correct. If you think of it as a prefix, which is still valid as it is being used as a direct alternative to "multi-", then the correct usage would be "single-player" or "singleplayer".

So, you see, it's not quite that clean cut. But this thread isn't really about finding what the textbook correct term is, but instead what term that most people use so that I can look slightly less silly when using it!

[Kosmo]

I would go with the case of single-minded and single-handed, where the prefix defines the property of the following word, when the word minded and handed both have a meaning alone, but when introducing the prefix the meaning of the word changes.

Just like player has many meanings, the word single-player is used to describe the properties of something, e.g. a video game.

Same goes with the multiplayer, but it is not hyphenated because multi- is actually shortened, from a longer desctription to be clearer when using adjacent with it's antonymous word.

but I might be just making this overly complicated

[mike-0]

who seriously gives a fuck

[Thrik]

As shocking as it may seem, some people do genuinely enjoy semantics. )

[Kosmo]

who seriously gives a fuck

As funny as it might seem to you as american, some of us are actually interested in how english is written and spoken, not just "take it, chew it and spit it out".

[Taylor]

Multiplayer is widely accepted as being spelt, well, as multiplayer. So singleplayer makes sense, I guess.

The distinction is that while "multiple" has a special version for use when prefixing, "single" has no such variant. As such, you have to use the term in both a prefix and adjective context.

Monoplayer?

[dissonance]

SP?

1up?

[cdxx]

are you guys still going on about this?!?!?!

[Thrik]

I guess that could work Taylor, though it's not a direct derivative. It has a nice ring to it, though!

[Spellbinder]

who seriously gives a fuck

As funny as it might seem to you as american, some of us are actually interested in how english is written and spoken, not just "take it, chew it and spit it out".

I know im gonna be bitchslapped for this but overall Americans are uneducated, ignorant and pretty stupid.

Except when you meet eye to eye, you can actually have a discussion with them.

But ask them to pin Iran on a map!

More often then not it ends up somewhere in Australia!

O well nm, i was a bit OF i'm sorry.

Maybe in another thread in Politics.

Hit me up!

And no you can't use Monoplayer no matter how nice ring to it, it has.

Because if you did, you had to call Multiplayer for Stereoplayer.

Spellbinder.