Fury Over AP Style Guide's Acceptance of "Over"

04 and 05: Writing | Designing
Written By Amy Newman

The AP Style Guide has updated a grammar rule and caused an outcry on Twitter. According to the new rule, "over" is acceptable to mean "more than," which strict grammarians won't accept.

AP Over

AP Over 2

AP Over 3 AP Over 4

A 2011 Inkhouse post explains the previous distinction:

"More than, over. More than is preferred with numbers, while over generally refers to spatial elements. The company has more than 25 employees; The cow jumped over the moon."

AP Stylebook explained the decision:

"We decided on the change because it has become common usage. We're not dictating that people use ‘over' – only that they may use it as well as ‘more than' to indicate greater numerical value."

Discussion Starters:

  • What would you rather do: eat glass or use "over" interchangeably with "more than"?
  • Seriously, what do you think inspires this outrage? In what ways is it justified-or not?
  • To me, these tweets are extraordinarily funny. Do you agree? If so, why do you think that's the case? 
Amy Newman https://www.amynewman.com
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