A: Our style guide favours “okay” in more formal settings (and when writing dialogue), however in most other situations “OK” is also perfectly okay. It's even okay to use “O.K.” – but just be consistent with the two-letter form (i.e. always use OK or always use O.K. – don't chop and change).
Okay and OK mean the same thing
There's no difference between OK and okay. The older term, OK, (possibly) derived from an abbreviation for an intentional misspelling of “all correct.” The terms are both standard English.
The generally accepted form is 'OK' – upper case, with no full stops.
According to Gregg Reference Manual, okay is written without periods. “In sentences, the forms okay, okayed, and okaying look better than OK, OK'd, and OK'ing, but the latter forms may be used.” When used as a verb, spelling okay out is preferred. OK is the form supported by Merriam-Webster and the AP style guide.
Technically they are both acceptable to use. Okay is just a longer way of spelling it; it makes it looks more appealing in stylistic writing. For Example, if you were writing an essay or a formal letter, it would be better to use write okay, but if you are just sending a text message then OK is more common.
Conversation. Depending on the context of the conversation using the word “okay” to respond to a short/long text can be viewed as being rude/dismissive by the person you are talking to. Sometimes more is expected of you than mere acknowledgment.
Rather than anyone purposefully inventing "OK," it's actually editorial joke that inadvertently went viral. It all began in the office of Charles Gordon Greene at the Boston Morning Post, Good Magazine writes. The year was 1839, and among writerly folk, abbreviations were all the rage (think LOLZ, OMG or NBD today).
“OK” most likely is an abbreviation, but not of “okay.” The most common explanation for the origin of “OK” is that it came from an intentional misspelling of “all correct.” In the early 19th century, people started spelling it phonetically, as “oll korrect,” as a joke.
Okay and the abbreviations OK and O.K. are informal and should be replaced by synonyms such as acceptable, all right, correct, approval, authorize or recommend in formal writing. Ian says he'll be okay (all right) once his cold clears up.
OK (spelling variations include okay, O.K., ok and Ok) is an English word (originating in American English) denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, acknowledgment, or a sign of indifference. OK is frequently used as a loanword in other languages.
The word “OK” is all caps (i.e., capitalized) because it is not the full word “okay.” The word “okay” does not qualify for even an initial capital. The word “OK” is what is called an “abbreviation,” and the capital letters make abbreviations and acronyms stand out amid regular text.
OK: Olla Kalla or Oll Korrect
OK (also spelled as okay, ok, or O.K.) is a word used to denote acceptance, agreement, approval, or acknowledgment. OK expand as Olla Kalla. It is a Greek word which means All correct.
It's very simple: you have two choices if you want to say something is okay. You can spell out the word in full (okay), or you can use capital letters (OK). What's unacceptable is to write 'ok' in lower case.
We use okay (also spelt OK) in informal language. We use it in different ways, as a discourse marker, adjective or adverb.
A more likely explanation is that the term originated as an abbreviation of orl korrekt , a jokey misspelling of 'all correct' which was current in the US in the 1830s. The oldest written references result from its use as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840.
It's ok to use it in pretty much any email and (especially) phone conversation, even in business context.
OK [not before noun] (informal) not feeling ill; not injured: She says she's OK now, and will be back at work tomorrow.
The Word 'O.K.' Has Just Celebrated Its 177th Birthday
Here's first appearance of the word 'ok' took place on March 23, 1839, as Atlas Obscura writes today: “We said not a word about our deputation passing “through the city” of Providence.
And yet, OK has burst out of the United States and is now used all over the world. OK has made appearances in Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, French, Russian, Indonesian, German, Maldivian, Malay, Urdu, Punjabi, Filipino and other languages.
Likewise, experts think “OK” likely emerged as an abbreviation of “oll korrect” – which was a jokey way of saying “all correct.” Others say that it derives from “Old Kinderhook,” a nickname for former U.S. President Martin Van Buren, or that it comes from Choctaw, a Native American language.
Most historians agree that OK stands for "all correct," which is why we use the word to express agreement, approval or just as a way of saying that everything is fine. The shorthand expression came about during the late 1830s, when it became popular to use abbreviations rather than entire terms during conversations.
k - “okay” as in acknowledgement. can have an implication that you're busy. kk - also acknowledgement, and more obviously not a typo, so less implication of busy-ness. okok - more “okay, already!”—unless it's an AutoCorrect oops.
A: Our style guide favours “okay” in more formal settings (and when writing dialogue), however in most other situations “OK” is also perfectly okay. It's even okay to use “O.K.” – but just be consistent with the two-letter form (i.e. always use OK or always use O.K. – don't chop and change).