hyphen
Sign in to saveThe hyphen ' is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation'.
AI overview
A hyphen is a small punctuation mark that connects words together or breaks up the syllables within a single word. It matters because it helps clarify meaning in writing—for example, distinguishing between different phrases or making compound words easier to read.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Punctuation mark.mark
- ‐
- Punctuation mark.name
- Hyphen
- Punctuation mark.variant1
- -
- Punctuation mark.caption1
- Hyphen-minus
- Punctuation mark.variant2
- ‑
- Punctuation mark.caption2
- Non-breaking hyphen
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
26 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- History<span class="anchor" id="Origin and history"></span>
- Use in English
- Separating
- Justification and line-wrapping
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Syllabification and spelling
- Joining
- Compound modifiers
- Object–verbal-noun compounds
- Personal names
- Other compounds
- Suspended hyphens
- Other uses
- Varied meanings
- Use in computing<span class="anchor" id="In computing"></span>
- Hyphen-minuses
- Soft and hard hyphens
- Nonbreaking hyphens <span class="anchor" id="non-breaking hyphen"></span> <span class="anchor" id="nonbreaking hyphen"></span> <span class="anchor" id="no-break hyphen"></span>
- "Unicode hyphen" <span class="anchor" id="Unicode hyphen"></span>
- Use in date notation
- Unicode
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
The hyphen ' is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation'.
The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with the minus sign , which is also wider and usually drawn a little higher to match the crossbar in the plus sign .