The common adjective used to label Internet activities is usually written as one word: “online”: “The online site selling banana cream pies was a failure.” But it makes more sense when using it as an adverbial phrase to write two separate words: “When the teacher took her class to the library, most of them used it to go on line.” The hyphenated form “on-line” is not widely used, but would be proper only for the adjectival function. However, you are unlikely to get into trouble for using “online” for all computer-related purposes.

As for real physical lines, New Yorkers and Bostonians wait “on line” (in queues), but most Americans wait “in line.”

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