: a punctuation mark - used especially to divide or to compound words, word elements, or numbers
Examples of hyphen in a Sentence
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Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
Use any combination of alphanumeric characters, spaces, and symbols including: hyphens, periods, hearts, stars, or silhouettes of the State of Texas.
—Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Jan. 2026
Ace Ratcliff, SELF, 10 July 2018
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Noun
The errant hyphen in Cézanne’s name, and an identical font across all three covers that looked very similar to an Anthropic typeface, caught my eye.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
Use any combination of alphanumeric characters, spaces, and symbols including: hyphens, periods, hearts, stars, or silhouettes of the State of Texas.
—Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Jan. 2026
Verb
Normally, closed caption subtitling bleeps words in a variety of different ways: phrases, such as (bleep), [expletive], or [censored] may be used, though sometimes hyphens or asterisks are substituted instead (f–k, f---, or f*** are all examples.
—Ace Ratcliff, SELF, 10 July 2018
See All Example Sentences for hyphen
Cite this Entry
“Hyphen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyphen. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
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