Meanings
plural hyphens
- The symbol "‐", typically used to join two or more words to form a compound term, or to indicate that a word has been split at the end of a line.
As the proud owner of my very own hyphen in a lovingly crafted surname, I have an especial soft spot for this most confusing of punctuation marks.
2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 56 - figurativelySomething which links two things of greater significance than itself.
Cunliffe and Karunanayake (2013) developed Fine's notion to introduce potential hyphen spaces that are deeply implicated and reciprocally influential in relationships between researchers and the researched.
2019 June 20, Noof Aldaheri, Gustavo Guzman, and Heather Stewart, “Tales of the Unknown and Entanglement”, in Prof. Anthony Stacey, editor, ECRM 2019 18th European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management, Academic Conferences and publishing limited, →ISBN, page 26- figurativelyAn enclosed walkway or passage that connects two buildings.
Those were the “hyphens,” the passageways that connected the wings of the mansion to its center.
2012, James M Cain, The Cocktail Waitress2 more examples
The hyphens were added, joining the structures into one building, which now measures just over two hundred feet long.
1997, Peter Beney, The Majesty of Colonial Williamsburg, page 156Construction details for the hyphens, or "connecting wings" as they were called by the contractors, were included in the contractors' specifications, as follows:
2010, Mary L. Kwas, A Pictorial History of Arkansas's Old State House
- Someone who belongs to a marginalized subgroup, and can therefore described by a hyphenated term, such as "German-American", "female-academic", etc.
Tab has been kept on quite a number of members who rapturously applauded when that part of the message in which the hyphens were attacked was read by the President.
1916, The American Monthly - Volume 3, page 2212 more examples
Sign language interpreters fascinate me because their cultural space, "working the hyphens" as Michelle Fine (1994) would call it, and performing in the kind of hybrid third space that Homi Bhabha (1994) has written about resonates often with my own "hard-of-hearing" doubly hyphenated existence in both deaf and hearing worlds.
2004, Bonnie G. Smith, Beth Hutchison, Gendering Disability, page 61A leading Republican paper also had, on the eve of the convention, focused attention on this issue by remarking that Hughes was “designated by the Hyphens as their agent to punish Mr. Wilson for his partial refusal to comply with Potsdam orders.
2013, Kevin O’Keefe, A Thousand Deadlines
present singular third person hyphens · participle present hyphening · participle past hyphened · past hyphened
- Used to emphasize the coordinating function usually indicated by the punctuation "-".
Ax was now a Hollywood hyphenated man. An actor hyphen director hyphen writer.
1950, Cleveland Amory, Home town4 more examples
You are sitting at the wrong table, if I may be so bold, among the misguided who believe in the mass murder of mentalities, otherwise known as the liberal arts hyphen vocational training hyphen education.
1945, Robert Gessner, Youth is the timeHe described himself as a poet-composer and actually said the word hyphen when he did so: "I'm a poet hyphen composer.
1983, Linda Crawford, Vanishing actsHe is an actor (hyphen) writer (hyphen) director. In the fifth year of the series Alan Alda added another title to his growing list — that of creative consultant.
1983, David S. Reiss, M*A*S*H: the exclusive, inside story of TV's most popular showOne reason he has avoided reading legal thrillers is that “they seem really to have been written by lawyer-hyphen-authors.”
2007, Stephen M. Murphy, What If Holden Caulfield Went to Law School?, page 65
Synonyms & antonyms
conjunctionUsed to emphasize the coordinating function usually indicated by the punctuation "-".
More synonyms by meaning
nouna punctuation mark (‘-’) used between parts of a compound word or between the syllables of a word when the word is divided at the end of a line of text
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekῠ̔φέν“in one, as a single word”
- Late Latinhyphen
- Englishhyphen
Learned borrowing from Late Latin hyphen, from Ancient Greek ῠ̔φέν (hŭphén, “in one, as a single word”), univerbation of ῠ̔φ’ ἕν (hŭph’ hén, “under one”), from ῠ̔πο- (hŭpo-, “under”) + ἕν (hén, “one”), neuter of εἷς (heîs, “one”).
More words from Late Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic شَحْطَة, شَرْطَة
- شَحْطَة (šaḥṭa)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- شَرْطَة (šarṭa)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Bengali হাইফেন
- হাইফেন (haiphen)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Bulgarian тире́, дефи́с
- тире́ (tiré)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- дефи́с (defís)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Catalan guionet
- guionetsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Chinese Mandarin 連字號 /连字号
- 連字號 /连字号 (liánzìhào)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Czech spojovník
- spojovníksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Danish bindestreg
- bindestregsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Dutch afbreekteken, koppelteken
- afbreektekensymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- koppeltekensymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- verbindingsstreepjesymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Esperanto streketo
- streketosymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Estonian sidekriips
- sidekriipssymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Finnish yhdysmerkki, yhdysviiva
- yhdysmerkkisymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- yhdysviivasymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- väliviivasymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- tavuviivasymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
French trait d'union, tiret
- trait d'unionsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- tiretsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- tiret du 6symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
German Bindestrich, Divis
- Bindestrichsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- Divissymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Greek ενωτικό
- ενωτικό (enotikó)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Hebrew מַקָּף
- מַקָּף (makáf)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Hindi हैफ़ेन
- हैफ़ेन (haifen)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Hungarian kötőjel, diviz
- kötőjelsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- divizsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- választójelsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- elválasztójelsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Icelandic bandstrik
- bandstriksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Indonesian tanda hubung
- tanda hubungsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Irish fleiscín
- fleiscínsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Italian trattino
- trattinosymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Japanese ハイフン
- ハイフン (haifun)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Korean 붙임표, 하이픈
- 붙임표 (buchimpyo)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- 하이픈 (haipeun)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Latin virgula
- virgulasymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Latvian defise
- defisesymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Lithuanian brūkšnys, brūkšnelis
- brūkšnyssymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- brūkšnelissymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Malay sempang
- sempangsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Māori tohuhono, tohuwehe
- tohuhonosymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- tohuwehesymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Norwegian Bokmål bindestrek
- bindestreksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Polish dywiz, łącznik
- dywizsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- łączniksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- kreseczkasymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Portuguese hífen, traço
- hífensymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- traçosymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Romanian cratimă, liniuță de unire
- cratimăsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- liniuță de uniresymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Russian дефи́с, чёрточка
- дефи́с (defís)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- чёрточка (čórtočka)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Scottish Gaelic sgrìob-cheangail, strìoch
- sgrìob-cheangailsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- strìochsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- tàthansymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Slovak spojovník
- spojovníksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Spanish guion
- guionsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Swedish bindestreck, divis
- bindestrecksymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- divissymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Tagalog gitling, giyon
- gitlingsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- giyonsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Thai ยัติภังค์
- ยัติภังค์ (yát-dtì-pang)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Turkish tire, kısa çizgi
- tiresymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- kısa çizgisymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Ukrainian дефі́с, ри́ска
- дефі́с (defís)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- ри́ска (rýska)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Urdu ہائِفِن
- ہائِفِن (hāifin)symbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Vietnamese dấu gạch nối, dấu nối
- dấu gạch nốisymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- dấu nốisymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Welsh cysylltnod, cyplysnod
- cysylltnodsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- cyplysnodsymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
- heiffensymbol used to join words or to indicate a word has been split
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with hyphen
All rhymes →Cite this entry
hyphen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyphen
“hyphen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyphen. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hyphen,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyphen.
Source: hyphen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.