Meaning & use
hyphen
A short punctuation mark used to join words or parts of a word together.
See it in a sentence
Add a hyphen between mother and in-law to write mother-in-law correctly.
The editor removed an unnecessary hyphen from the compound word.
A note on using this word
Hyphen is often misspelled hyphon; do not confuse it with a dash, which is longer and used differently in punctuation.
Words with a similar meaning
This term is best learned through its definition and examples.
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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