verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hyphenatesimple
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hyphenatessimple
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have hyphenatedperfect
-
has hyphenatedperfect
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am hyphenatingprogressive
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are hyphenatingprogressive
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is hyphenatingprogressive
-
have been hyphenatingperfect progressive
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has been hyphenatingperfect progressive
Past
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hyphenatedsimple
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had hyphenatedperfect
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was hyphenatingprogressive
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were hyphenatingprogressive
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had been hyphenatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hyphenate
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.
Vocabulary lists containing hyphenate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The most common solution is to hyphenate their last names or keep their own last names.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was hyphenate.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2023
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
I know this very well, as I never changed my last name to my husband’s—nor did I hyphenate our two names.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2021
Back then women didn’t keep their own names or hyphenate them.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
It was wonderful to be seen that way and have my skill set and my hyphenates acknowledged and not having to compartmentalize because he sees me as a creator, much like he’s a creator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2024
With thousands of social media followers, the Nebraska-born model-actor-writer can add “influencer” to her multiple hyphenates, but she says today’s emphasis on “likes” has a downside.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
It can be in an article, headline, ad, whatever, as long as both parts come from hyphenates — anything with a hyphen.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2022
We’re a country of hyphenates, wherein man need not be defined only by statesman or politician, but equally by the various other degrees.
From Time ● Sep. 16, 2016
Of the three occurrences of the name "Newnes's Thin-Paper Classics", Bennett hyphenates only one; I have hyphenated all three.
From Literary Taste: How to Form It With Detailed Instructions for Collecting a Complete Library of English Literature by Arnold Bennett
Words and phrases that will earn you a mark: genuinely, load-bearing, smoking gun, X is the new Y, and any “crazy hyphenated contractions that no one would normally use,” says Mehta, 33.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Versions with and without the hyphen have been used in the past, but a 1960 Privy Council announcement used the hyphenated version, which will be used from now on.
From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2025
Such hyphenated Americans, he said, felt a “degree of accepted and reasonable pride,” and had succeeded in connecting “their heritage to their mother country” and also to “where they are now” in America.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2024
To be an actor and a full-time parent and a full-time all those hyphenated titles — wife and daughter and community provider — is like serving in the military, I’ll tell you that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
However, Geronimo was hyphenated at a line break, so Gero appeared on one line and nimo on the next, and unfortunately, Mr. Fairbain read it as Jair-oh-NEEM-oh.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
As Im notes, an increasing number of women do not change their names when they get married — about 20%, with another 10% hyphenating or otherwise incorporating their original name into a blended last name.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
Instead of hyphenating or taking one or the other’s last name, the couple chose to create a new one of their own.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
We have a problem in the UK with people hyphenating their job roles.
From The Verge ● Sep. 3, 2021
Plus, unless the parents change to a hyphenated name too, it means three different names are in play in the same family, as they were in ours once she started hyphenating.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2020
It didn't take them long to decide hyphenating all the names together alphabetically was much too unwieldy to work.
From The Alembic Plot A Terran Empire novel by Ann Wilson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
