hyphen

noun

hy·phen | \ ˈhī-fən

Definition of hyphen

(Entry 1 of 2)

: a punctuation mark - used especially to divide or to compound words, word elements, or numbers

hyphen

verb

hyphened; hyphening; hyphens

Definition of hyphen (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

: hyphenate

Other Words from hyphen Example Sentences Learn More about hyphen

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Examples of hyphen in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Even something as simple as a missing hyphen or typo could throw the whole thing off, leading to 53,000 voter registration applications to be held up at the Secretary of State’s Office. — Ella Nilsen, Vox, "This Democrat thinks voting rights should be one of the House’s first big priorities in January," 11 Dec. 2018 Under the law, small errors like a space or hyphen between names could be used to discount a ballot. — Isabella Gomez, Teen Vogue, "2018 Midterms: Allegations of Voter Suppression Arise in Georgia’s Governor’s Race," 7 Nov. 2018 The bank’s vendor-screening system failed to identify the customers, the Treasury said, noting that the system had failed to connect customer names that had hyphens, initials or additional detail as potential matches to names on the sanctions list. — Samuel Rubenfeld, WSJ, "JPMorgan Chase Settles Allegations It Violated U.S. Sanctions," 5 Oct. 2018 That company was Micro-Soft, which shed its hyphen the following year. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "Paul Allen—Microsoft co-founder, Seahawks owner, and space pioneer—dies at 65," 16 Oct. 2018 Don’t spell Japanese-American with that hyphen, brother. — Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Express-News, "SBOE debate highlights the cynical stigma of the hyphen," 16 June 2018 For Mexican Americans, the hyphen — as defined by Theodore Roosevelt and a century’s worth of like-minded American politicians — is always there. — Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Express-News, "SBOE debate highlights the cynical stigma of the hyphen," 16 June 2018 The computer marked it as a naughty word and substituted it with three hyphens. — CBS News, ""Summa Cum Laude" cake censored by Publix grocery store," 23 May 2018 The computer marked it as a naughty word and substituted three hyphens. — NBC News, "Grocery sees dirty word in 'Summa Cum Laude,' censors cake," 23 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: 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, "I Rely On Closed Captions to Enjoy a Show And I Don't Appreciate Netflix's Way of Censoring Them," 10 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hyphen.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.