Learn English – the correct capitalization of the words earth and moon

capitalizationproper-nouns

I believe that Earth means planet and earth means soil. But I've seen earth used in published works to mean the planet earth. But no one writes jupiter.

Similarly, Moon should mean the name of Earth's moon and lower case moon means the general category. This one is more complicated because I've read that the name of Earth's moon is Luna. Except no one calls it that. We don't say "Neil Armstrong was the first man on Luna."

Am I correct or is this a matter of convention?

Best Answer

According to Garner's Modern American Usage, when referring to the planet we live on, when used with the definite article, it is "the earth", lower case. However, when it is used as a name for the planet without an article, like "Mars is smaller than Earth", you capitalize it. It says sun and moon are treated the same way.

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