“The project dateline is Friday at 5 pm.”
Confusables Entry 1317 / 1605 60-second read
Deadline vs. Dateline
The final time something must be done versus the line where the date changes (or the byline in a news article).
The comparisoni
“The project deadline is Friday at 5 pm — a dateline is the International Date Line or a news article byline. Deadlines are time limits.”
The ruleii
¶
DEADLINE = time. DATELINE = location/byline.
DEADLINE is the absolute latest time to complete a task. DATELINE is either (1) the International Date Line (where the date changes on Earth) or (2) the location-and-date stamp at the top of a news article. Phonetic similarity creates frequent confusion.
Memory aidiii
Remember it like this
Deadline = time-out. Dateline = news header.