I've got a document in which I'm defining counterclockwise and mentioning that it is sometimes also called anti-clockwise. The document is in American English, and generally in line with the Chicago Manual of Style. CMoS seems to suggest counterclockwise (no hyphen), but anti-clockwise seems to me to be a predominantly British-English term, and the OED seems to indicate that the hyphen should be present there. Should I hyphenate either or both of counterclockwise and anti-clockwise? Why?
Learn English – Should anti- and counterclockwise be hyphenated
american-englishbritish-englishhyphenation
Best Answer
I think you will find counterclockwise to be most often unhyphenated and anti-clockwise/anticlockwise to be as often hyphenated as not (and it appears that the unhyphenated version is gaining traction)
EDIT: A little more evidence (note that counter clockwise shows hits for both counter clockwise and counter-clockwise, and the same for anti clockwise) to clear up the issue.
It appears to me that the unhyphenated form "wins" for both words.