Twenty-fourth post in the series of confusing words
Actually there’s a dearth of words beginning with x-, so I’ve cheated and picked a word beginning ex-: expatriate.
Expatriate (noun or adjective) (expat for short) refers to a person living outside his or her native country. There is no need to hyphenate it and it’s definitely incorrect to spell it ex-patriot, as some people do. An ex-patriot would be someone who used to be patriotic or jingoistic but is no longer.
You can read about the correct use of expatriate and a whole lot more, in the English Digital Content style guide.
