Hyphens

Hyphens are punctuation marks represented by a short horizontal line. In English typography, the hyphen connects words and can also indicate that a syllable continues on the next line when a word is too long to fit at the end of a line.

Primary uses include forming compound terms such as well-known author or mother-in-law, and clarifying meaning to avoid misreading (re-cover versus recover; re-creation versus recreation). Hyphens also join prefixes to words and are used in spelling-out numbers (twenty-one) or in certain fixed expressions. Hyphenation helps readability, and some hyphenated forms become fixed as closed or open compounds over time.

Rules for hyphen usage vary by style guide. Some standards require hyphenating most compound adjectives that precede a noun (a well-known artist), while others prefer fewer hyphens. When in doubt, consult a guide such as the Chicago Manual of Style, the Associated Press, or MLA style. In practice, regional and disciplinary differences influence whether a term is hyphenated.

Hyphens are distinct from dashes. The en dash (–) is longer and marks ranges or connections (pages 12–14), while the em dash (—) can indicate a break or parenthetical thought. The hyphen remains the shortest mark and is not used for these purposes.

In typography and computing, the hyphen character is often the hyphen-minus on keyboards (ASCII 45) or the Unicode U+002D. Other hyphen-like characters, such as the non-breaking hyphen, may be used to control line breaks in digital text.