According to Google ngram, online is used more often.

Why is it so odd to have this hyphen in a sentence? In 1950, we see: 1950 W. W.

Stifler H.W. Stifler High-speed computing devices (Engin. Res.), p. 428. For example in 1950, the OED writes: 1950 W. W. Stifler High-speed Computing Devices (Engin. Res. p. 4), (Application Note 1) 50 W. W. Stifler High-speed Computing Devices (N.W.S.R ), I.W. St Associates) Ii. In on-line operation the input is communicated directly to the data-reducing device. 1

Is the shoebox an automatic text-processing and retrieval

system implemented for on-line operation on an ibm 360/50 computer?

Since today all words include hyphen, so the usage is as follows: 1998

T Shellon Encycl. Networking (new ed.) 990 In online transaction processing, transactions are executed immediately, as opposed to batch processing.

Why use on-line rather than online?

Both are really okay; usage depends on the audience you’re writing for, and then your personal style/personal taste, in that order.

Can I make short sentences hyphenated? What should I do? Generally, in formal, professional writing, the decision to hyphenate or not will be made by the editorial staff for which one is writing. The reasons why it is so, are unclear. Toward the academic level, however, this decision will be made either by the professor, or — if not — devolve to the author himself/herself, as to his/her particular interest and the manner in which they relate to the matter.

What is online? In speech I tend to use one, depending on context and rhetorical aim. For example, I generally hyphenate when the word is used as a predicate complement (“I am on-line”, “I need to get on-line”), and not when it’s just a straight adjective (“It’s an online game”, “Online accounts are down right now”). They aren’t hard and fast, even for me; if I’m writing for younger audiences, I will tend to just go with it: “online”, because that seems to be how things are trending with their age group.

I want to do exactly the opposite of what you do. In other words, if I’m using it as an adjective, I would do what one has always done when two words form one adjective–use a hyphen. It’s an on-line project. I am also out of step with the rest of the world in that I see two words, period, when the expression is used as what you call a predicate complement: “I am on line” is how my brain would write it.

I have been an editorialist for five years in Houston, Texas. Try thinking of it this way. Online services are simply what internet sites are called. The Internet is your router’s connection to the world wide web. Is there really the possibility of going to a doctor? What ever one has the best idea for you, as we say in advertising, “Pick the one that’s best for you.” In

terms of “on the phone”, what does it mean? How can we evolve to on the phone or onphone? I’m beginning to think that maybe we go back to the future and use “on the line. I hope you will find it useful for future generations. “Now

feel so much less really tired. I

am too tired.

Is there a wide difference between the original version (on-line operation) and the modern use (to go online, etc.)? In 1950, being “on-line” meant that a device was using the phone in a fixed location over a line of communication. For some people online means the whole user experience, not just the methods through which the computer is connected. Why have we now made a change in meaning in the 80s when we started saving time online? With

the term getting more common, there was a tendency of lazy typists to opt out of the hyphen in the book.

Computer and Internet grammar has evolved rapidly since the late 1980s. Why don’t many people think of the word internet as a means of “accessing” the web “outside of Google or Yahoo?”