The Canadian Style
http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Institutional Links
-
Translation Bureau
Language Portal of Canada
-
TERMIUM Plus®
-
Chapters
- + Abbreviations
- + Hyphenation: Compounding and Word Division
- + Spelling
- - Close Capitalization
- Introduction to Capitalization
- Initial words
- Personal names
- Words derived from proper nouns
- Governments and government bodies
- Institutions
- Political parties and movements
- Titles of office or rank
- Personifications and abstractions
- Family appellations
- Races, languages and peoples
- School subjects, courses and degrees
- Military terms
- Modes of transportation
- Medals, awards, honours and decorations
- Sporting events and trophies
- Time references and historical periods and events
- Cultural periods, movements and styles
- Terms related to religion
- Deities
- Geographical terms
- Buildings, monuments and public places
- Astronomical terms
- Biological terms
- Chemical, medical and pharmacological terms
- Scientific names with eponyms
- Copyrighted names
- SI/metric units
- Publications and works of art
- Parts of a book or document
- Headings
- Terms indicating time or numbered sequence
- Lists
- Legal usage
- The salutation and complimentary close
- Compounds
- The definite article
- Single letters used as words
- + Numerical Expressions
- + Italics
- + Punctuation
- + Quotations and Quotation Marks
- + Reference Matter
- + Letters and Memorandums
- + Reports and Minutes
- + Usage
- + Plain Language
- + Elimination of Stereotyping in Written Communications
- + Geographical Names
- + Revision and Proofreading
- + French Typographical Rules
Proactive Disclosure
Important notice
The Canadian Style has been archived and won’t be updated before it is permanently deleted.
For the most up-to-date content, please consult Writing Tips Plus, which combines content from Writing Tips and The Canadian Style. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!
Search and Functionalities Area
4.20 Deities
(a) Capitalize names, synonyms and personifications of deities and other supernatural beings:
- God
- the Creator
- the Almighty
- Mother Nature
- Jehovah
- Siva
- Minerva
- Moloch
- Allah
- Manitou
(b) Do not capitalize such words used as common nouns:
- The child was an angel.
- The adoring public regarded the film star as a god.
(c) Derivatives of these terms are normally lower-cased, as are similar terms used metaphorically:
- christen
- messianic
- a saviour
(d) Capitalize personal pronouns that refer to deities when they are used as proper nouns, but do not capitalize relative pronouns:
- Trust in Him whose strength will uphold you.
(e) Do not capitalize the words god and goddess when they refer to pagan deities, but capitalize the names of the deities themselves (Baal, Woden, Zeus).
(f) Do not capitalize words such as heaven, paradise, purgatory, nirvana, happy hunting ground, devil and angel when used in a non-religious sense:
- After his wife died he went through purgatory.
- War is hell.
but
- God is in Heaven.
- Many Buddhists seek to attain Nirvana.
© Public Services and Procurement Canada, 2024
TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank
Writing tools – The Canadian Style
A product of the Translation Bureau
