hyphenate

American  

[hahy-fuh-neyt, hahy-fuh-nit, -neyt] / ˈhaɪ fəˌneɪt, ˈhaɪ fə nɪt, -ˌneɪt /

verb (used with object)

hyphenated, hyphenating

1. to join by a hyphen.

2. to write or divide with a hyphen.

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adjective

1. of or relating to something of distinct form or origin that has been joined; connected by a hyphen.

noun

1. Informal. a person working or excelling in more than one craft or occupation.

   He's a film-industry hyphenate, usually listed as a writer-director-producer.

hyphenate British  

/ ˈhaɪfəˌneɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to separate (syllables, words, etc) with a hyphen

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Other Word Forms

• hyphenation noun

Etymology

Origin of hyphenate

First recorded in 1850–55; hyphen + -ate ¹

Explanation

When you hyphenate a word, you use a punctuation mark that resembles a dash to connect two words into one or separate a word's syllables. To write the word old-fashioned, you have to hyphenate it. When you write words like deep-fried and record-breaking, you hyphenate them, or add a hyphen to join their separate parts into one word. Another common reason to hyphenate words is when you reach the end of a line and need to split the word you're writing into two parts, continuing the second part on the next line. The rule here is to hyphenate between complete syllables.

Example Sentences

Hello Carolyn: Our son’s wife of several years chose to hyphenate our last name with her maiden name.

From Washington Post • Sep. 4, 2022

Do you have a favorite hyphenate in the multi-hyphenate?

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2022

Some people on Twitter shared a clip of King interviewing Julia Louis-Dreyfus where he asked her about having a "man’s name," seemingly mistaking the hyphenate for a middle name.

From Fox News • Jan. 25, 2021

So it should be no surprise that I spent this week demanding everyone read a book about a 19th-century ichthyological taxonomist-eugenicist-assassin, a hyphenate that makes my head spin.

From New York Times • May 12, 2020

Back then women didn’t keep their own names or hyphenate them.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson