[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/hyphen.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / hyphen

[← H](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/H/)

# hyphen

«hyphen» in Mova's school dictionary: **a short line (-) used to join words or parts of words…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a hyphen, hyphens); verb (hyphenate — to join with a hyphen)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A hyphen is a short line (-) used to join words or parts of words together, as in «well-known» or «twenty-one». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#m1)

2) A hyphen is also used at the end of a line when a word is split and goes on to the next line. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In English grammar and punctuation lessons (and SATs) you learn to use hyphens in compound numbers (thirty-four), in compound adjectives before a noun (a man-eating shark), with some prefixes (re-enter, co-owner) and to avoid confusion (re-cover a sofa versus recover from illness). In writing a hyphen can change the meaning: «a little-used car» and «a little used car» are different. Phrases: use a hyphen, joined by a hyphen, hyphenated word.

### examples

- Twenty-one has a hyphen in it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x1)
- Put a hyphen in «well-known» when it comes before a noun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x2)
- The word was too long, so the printer split it with a hyphen. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x3)
- My name is double-barrelled, with a hyphen in the middle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x4)
- Is «e-mail» written with a hyphen or without? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x5)
- A man-eating shark is different from a man eating shark! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x6)
- Re-enter has a hyphen so the two e's do not run together. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x7)
- The teacher circled the missing hyphen. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/#x8)

### note

Countable: a hyphen, two hyphens. Pronounced «HY-fen». Trap: a hyphen (-) is shorter than a dash (– or —); a hyphen joins words, a dash separates parts of a sentence and has spaces around it in UK style. Do not confuse the hyphen with the minus sign in maths, which looks similar but means subtract. Compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine take a hyphen.

### In the corpora

- [A dash is longer than a hyphen and usually has a space on each side; a hyphen is short and has no spaces.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/8/)
- [Some hyphens stop two different words from looking the same: re-cover (cover again) and recover (get better).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/13/)
- [In British slang "well" means very, as in "I'm well tired"; no hyphen is needed there.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/14/)
- [Hyphens join all the parts of one number: quatre-vingt-huit is one number, 88, not four separate numbers.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/8-numbers-70-to-100-soixante-dix-and-quatre-vingts/13/)
- [In France the weekend is le week-end, with a hyphen; in Quebec people often say la fin de semaine.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/10-days-of-the-week-and-months/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «hyphen» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hyphen/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.