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Use screenshot as the default spelling, with screenshots as the plural. Cambridge and Dictionary.com use the closed form as a headword, and the ACS Technologies style guide says to write it as one word. Screen shot and screen-shot are documented alternatives, however, so they are not automatically errors. If your publication, employer or client has a house style, follow it and use the chosen form consistently.
The short answer
| Form | Status | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| screenshot | Preferred general form; dictionary headword | Use this by default in articles, software documentation and ordinary correspondence. |
| screenshots | Standard plural of screenshot | Use when referring to two or more captured images. |
| screen shot | Documented alternative | Use only when a house style, quotation or established product terminology calls for it. |
| screen-shot | Also listed by Cambridge | Keep it if an authoritative style guide for your project requires the hyphen. |
For a sentence that needs no explanation, write: “Please attach a screenshot of the error.”
Why “screenshot” is the safest default
Modern English usually closes familiar compound nouns into one word. The Google developer documentation style guide states, “In general, write compound nouns in their closed (one-word, unhyphenated) form.” That is a useful editorial principle when a term has become familiar to a technical audience.
Dictionary.com and Cambridge both present screenshot as a headword. ACS Technologies’ accepted-words guide gives the explicit instruction “Note: One word.” Those sources support a strong practical recommendation: unless a project guide says otherwise, choose the closed spelling.
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This is a recommendation, not a claim that every other spelling is wrong. English compound nouns often have a period in which open, hyphenated and closed forms coexist. “Screen shot” remains understandable and is recorded by major references, so correcting every instance as though it were an error can overstate the rule.
What the dictionaries say about the variants
Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com lists screenshot as the main entry and records screen shot as an alternative. It also gives screenshots as the plural. That makes the closed singular and closed plural the clearest pair for general writing.
Cambridge Dictionary
Cambridge lists all three forms: screenshot, screen shot and screen-shot. Its entries show why “always wrong” is too broad a verdict: the open and hyphenated forms are recognized variants even though the closed form is the most convenient default.
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House style is a separate authority
A dictionary records usage; a house style selects one form for consistency. ACS Technologies chooses one word. Another publisher could choose differently without contradicting the dictionaries. Treat an organization’s instruction as a local rule, not as proof that the other variants have disappeared from English.
How to choose the form for your publication
- Check the house guide first. Search for “screenshot,” “screen shot” and “compound nouns.” If the guide specifies one form, use it even when another form is more common elsewhere.
- If no rule exists, choose screenshot. It is the headword in both Dictionary.com and Cambridge and is explicitly preferred by the ACS guide.
- Apply the decision to derivatives. Once you choose screenshot, write screenshots, screenshot tool and screenshot workflow in the same style.
- Preserve quoted or official text. Do not silently alter a product name, legal quotation or user-interface label that intentionally uses screen shot or screen-shot. Explain the variation only if it matters to the reader.
- Make the choice once and enforce it. A copy-editing search for all three spellings catches accidental switching within the same article, help center or code sample.
Plural, verb and related usage
Plural noun
The ordinary plural is screenshots, not “screenshot’s” and not “screens shot.” For example: “The support team requested three screenshots.” The apostrophe belongs only to a possessive: “The screenshot’s timestamp is visible.”
Verb
English also uses screenshot as a verb: “Screenshot the settings page before you reset the device.” In a formal instruction, “Take a screenshot of the settings page” is equally clear. Keep the spelling closed when the term functions as a verb.
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Attributive compounds
Before another noun, the closed form remains easy to scan: “screenshot utility,” “screenshot file,” “screenshot comparison” and “screenshot API.” If your house style requires hyphens in all temporary compounds, apply that broader rule consistently; do not invent a special hyphen merely because the word modifies another noun.
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Use lowercase in running text. Capitalize only at the beginning of a sentence or when the word appears in a branded name, title or interface label that uses title case.
When “screen shot” or “screen-shot” is reasonable
- Existing house style: A publication may deliberately retain the open or hyphenated form.
- Historical or quoted material: Preserve the spelling in a quotation when accuracy matters.
- Official labels: A software vendor’s menu, command or product name may use a variant that should not be rewritten.
- Legacy content: If an old knowledge base consistently uses one variant, changing every page may create unnecessary URL, search or training-data churn. Plan a controlled style migration instead.
What is not reasonable is switching forms at random: “Take a screenshot, then attach the screen shot and compare the screen-shot files.” Readers can understand it, but the inconsistency suggests an editing mistake.
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Common mistakes and clean corrections
| Inconsistent or incorrect pattern | Recommended correction | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| “Attach two screen shots.” | “Attach two screenshots.” | Use the standard closed plural unless a local guide says otherwise. |
| “Send the screenshot’s to support.” | “Send the screenshots to support.” | The plural does not take an apostrophe. |
| “See the screen-shot below” in one paragraph and “screenshot” in the next | Choose one form throughout. | Consistency is more useful than pretending variants have different meanings. |
| “Screenshots” used as a singular | “The screenshot is blurry.” | Match the verb and article to the number of images. |
| Changing a quoted interface label | Retain the label and explain it if needed. | Official text is evidence of the product’s terminology, not a spelling exercise. |
Editing and search guidance
Search engines can match all three variants, but discoverability is not a reason to mix them in one page. Put the form your audience expects in the title, headings, URL slug and first paragraph, then mention the alternatives once when explaining the spelling. This gives readers the answer without making the page look mechanically optimized.
For a technical documentation set, add the preferred form to your style linting or review checklist. A simple editorial search for screen shot and screen-shot can identify exceptions for review; it should not blindly replace quoted text, command names or brand names.
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Using “screenshot” in a technical product name
When you document an actual capture service, the closed form is also the clearest label for the operation. ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server from Yorker Media. A GET request to its API returns a PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF, so documentation can consistently describe the result as a “screenshot” even when the output is an image file or a document.
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The API base is https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot. See the ScreenshotNeo documentation for the complete parameter reference.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpimport requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);Why the service matters to screenshot workflows
- Before capture, it accepts the cookie or consent banner like a visitor and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups and chat widgets. Each cleanup step can be turned off.
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X-Page-VerdictandX-Billed. - An MCP server provides
take_screenshot,get_page_infoandcapture_pdftools for Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients. - The API includes full-page capture with lazy-image loading, CSS-selector element capture, dark mode, device presets and custom viewports, retina scale, PDF paper and page controls, custom CSS and JavaScript, pre-capture clicks, selector or network-idle waits, request and resource blocking, headers, cookies, user agents, authorization, timezone and geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, configurable-TTL caching, signed image links, asynchronous jobs with signed webhooks, bulk capture for up to 100 URLs per call, a usage API and an OpenAPI specification.
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