"usage note" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to provide information about the meaning or use of a given word or phrase. For example, "Usage note: The word 'theater' can also be spelled 'theatre'."
From "The American Heritage College Dictionary," p. 547:> USAGE NOTE The verbs founder and flounder are often confused.
From "The American Heritage College Dictionary," p. 547: USAGE NOTE The verbs founder and flounder are often confused.
Why give "ironic" more attentiveness, for example, than "disingenuous?" In the latter case, one "usage note" points out that "the meaning of disingenuous has been shifting about lately, as if people are unsure of its proper meaning".
The editors then arrived at their decisions, but for many words they added not just a usage label but also a usage "note," giving the voting results, which were sometimes close.
But this is followed by an eighteen-line usage note, saying that while "ain't" is strongly condemned, "ain't I" is a little more tolerable than "ain't" combined with any other word.
The American Heritage Dictionary silently dropped the usage note on wellness in its fourth edition in 2000, a decision that its supervising editor, Steve Kleinedler, chalks up to the growing prevalence of wellness programs in the workplace and beyond.
Results appear in the "usage notes" accompanying major entries.
Consult a modern usage guide or a dictionary with usage notes.
Dictionaries not only slip CDs into their back covers, making search a snap, but also include "usage notes" after confusing words (American Heritage led the way there).
These are usually in dialogue or in a spoken narrative, a context that nevertheless needs to be explained by usage notes and labelling in the dictionary.
Many dictionaries give both definitions and don't take sides, in "usage notes" merely tipping off the Language Slobs to watch out for denunciation from the Language Snobs.
