Is the preferred Australian spelling e-zine or ezine?

This one is actually too close to call with total confidence. The usage of both in Australia is very similar.

Using Search Australia which only returns results for domain ending in .au, the number of results returned are:

e-zine: 11,300
ezine: 12,900

According to the Macquarie dictionary ezine is the preferred spelling with e-zine a secondary spelling. According to the Oxford dictionary the spelling is e-zine. The Oxford does not suggest a secondary spelling.

It does appear where there is no confusion when including or not including the hyphenation, there would be a preference towards ezine. For example in Australia the preference is email and not e-mail.

In this case, given ezine is used nearly 10 per cent more in Australia, and the Macquarie and the Oxford differ, I'd have to go with the Macquarie. As a result ezine will be added to the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.