‐

See also –, -, −, —, and 一

Translingual

Character	‐
Unicode name	HYPHEN
General Punctuation	U+2010

Punctuation mark

‐

1. The hyphen.

Usage notes

The similar looking hyphen-minus (-) is used more frequently, but is used for many purposes (as a hyphen, minus sign, and dash). This symbol is therefore more specific, being only used as a hyphen.

See also

• ‐ on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Punctuation

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) braces (publishing, music, programming) ( { } ) brackets (publishing, programming) ( [ ] ) colon ( : )

comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― ) ellipsis ( … ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop (British) or period (North America) ( . ) guillemets (publishing) ( « » )

hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) interpunct (publishing, web design) ( · ) interrobang (rare) ( ‽ ) parentheses ( ( ) )

question mark ( ? ) quotation marks (formal, British) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” ) quotation marks (informal, North America, computing) ( " ) ( ' )

semicolon ( ; ) slash ( / ) solidus (dated, mathematics) ( ⁄ ) space (   )

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English

Punctuation mark

‐

1. Used to separate, or connect, certain pieces of text.
   1. Used to distinguish syllables.

      syl‐lab‐i‐fi‐ca‐tion

   2. Used to distinguish letters.

      W‐O‐R‐D spells "word"

   3. Used to split a word across a line break (called hyphenation).

      We, therefore, the represen‐

      tatives of the United States

   4. Used to mark a point where a morpheme (a suffix, a prefix, etc.) is supposed to be attached to a word.

      Happiness ends with -ness.

   5. Used when joining prefixes and suffixes according to stylistic rules, often to avoid confusion in pronunciation or meaning

      ultra‐ambitious (to indicate both aes are pronounced)

      I must re‐press the shirt (to avoid confusion with repress)

   6. Used to connect words in compound terms.

      freeze‐dry

   7. Used to connect words in a compound modifier according to various stylistic rules.

      "real‐world examples" (but "examples are from the real world")

   8. Used to indicate common parts of repeated compounds.

      nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century

   9. Used to connect the year, the month and the day, in dates.

      1789-07-14 the date of the first Bastille Day

2. Used to hide letters.

   G‐d for God

Synonyms

• (all sense): - (hyphen-minus), often used for its ease.
• (distinguish syllables, US): · (interpunct)
• (hide letters): – (en-dash)
• (connecting compounds): – (en-dash), when the constituent parts already contain hyphens.

Usage notes

• In American English, compound words are formed more liberally than in British English. Hyphenated compound nouns are also much more common in colloquial American English.

Conjunction

‐

1. Used to join the components of coordinative compounds, with equal components.

   secretary-general; yellow-green; a here-today-gone-tomorrow attitude; kitchen-dinette-office

2. Used to join the components of subordinative compounds, with a dominant component or head.

   a has-been; cholesterol-free; short-changing

Synonyms

• (joining components of coordinative compounds): and, hyphen or -hyphen-, cum or -cum-, /, slash