What is the correct way to express the ordinal form of a large number?

Question

If I want to express...

The 1114th person

...with the number in words, would it be best to do...

The one thousand, one hundred and fourteenth person

...or hyphenated...

The one-thousand-one-hundred-and-fourteenth person

...or something else?

Answer 1

Given that you're stepping into informal or discursive writing by spelling out a numeral (although I can think of lots of good examples when you'd want to do that, for instance, childrens' literature, poetry, speech-writing-- "wrong" only applies when you're talking about strict formal writing, and even there the point at which one flips into using digits varies by style-guide) I would say you can use either, depending on what tone you want this part of your writing to have.

If you go with the hyphens, the 'and' is not strictly necessary.

Answer 2

First of all, I don't think this being the ordinal form affects the issue at all, it's the same if you are talking about "1426" or "1426th."

There are commonly used conventions about how to express numbers: http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipaug96.htm

The most pertinent to this question being, "Spell out the whole numbers one through nine. Write other numbers using digits."

So, spelling such a long number out in words is "wrong" (or rather, unconventional) so talking about which form is the "least wrong" isn't all that fruitful.