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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hyphen.

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.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhaɪ̯.f(ə̯)n̩//ˈhaɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhʌɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also/ˈhɑe̯.fən/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. 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.

  2. Something which links two things of greater significance than itself.

    figuratively
  3. Something which links two things of greater significance than itself. An enclosed walkway or passage that connects two buildings.

    figuratively
  4. Someone who belongs to a marginalized subgroup, and can therefore described by a hyphenated term, such as "German-American", "female-academic", etc.

Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈhaɪ̯.f(ə̯)n̩//ˈhaɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhʌɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also/ˈhɑe̯.fən/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To separate or punctuate with a hyphen; to hyphenate.

    dated · transitive
Where this word comes from

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”).

conj/ˈhaɪ̯.f(ə̯)n̩//ˈhaɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhʌɪ̯.fən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also/ˈhɑe̯.fən/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. Used to emphasize the coordinating function usually indicated by the punctuation "-".

Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.