Is "inbuilt" a word? Is it alright to use it or should I use "built in"?
I searched and found this: “Built-in” or “In-built”, which says inbuilt is fine. But in a reddit comment, I was told that I should use built in instead of inbuilt. Which is correct? I am using the word inbuilt on http://www.inboundio.com/features
In the Insular English of Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), Ireland (both the Republic and the Northern part), and surrounding bits like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, the preferred form is in-built, hyphenated like that. That’s the way the OED has it.
Chiefly as ˈin-ˌbuilt ppl. a. = built-in
In the North American English of the United States and Canada, the preferred form runs the other way, making it built-in. The OED says:
built-in: (a) constructed to form an integral part of a larger unit, esp. of the fittings or appurtenances of a house; (b) fig. inherent, integral, innate.
My familiarity with Antipodean English is extremely spotty at best, but I am pretty sure that I have heard some Kiwis use the Insular form and some Ozzies use the North American form. However, I don’t have enough experience there to say whether those were the norms or the exceptions.
O’Reilly, the tech publishing house, uses built-in as a matter of standard practice in its published style guide, and does so whether the word is used as an adjective or as a noun.
The reason they saw need to spell out that the word should be spelt the same way no matter its part of speech is because there is a very common tendency amongst programmers to use the unhyphenated form for the noun use. Most commonly, they wil refer to a programming language’s built-in functions and keywords as that language’s builtins. So one might say that if and while, or perhaps sin and cos, length and delete, as being some hypothetical language’s builtins.
But O’Reilly doesn’t like that, so spells out that one should hyphenate even there.
In-built and built-in are both words. I work with a lot of people in London and hear in-built. However I have never heard it spoken from an American - if it is it can't be popular. Basically if you said "I am going to make some in-built bookshelves." People would not take that to mean built-in, they would just think it was another descriptor or possibly that you flipped your words on accident.
Built-in is mainly used in the home environment in America to convey permanence (there are other uses but not common). If you have a microwave, bookshelf, cabinet, whatever... Those things could be easily moved. If you you have a built-in microwave, bookshelf,cabinet, whatever... Those things are considered part of the "home" and are permanently fastened.
It certainly is a word, but you might want to write it as in-built. I would also suggests writing an in-built simplifed CRM, depending on the meaning of CRM.