hüphen

Hüphen, known in English as the hyphen, is a punctuation mark consisting of a short horizontal line used to join words or parts of words. It serves several common functions: forming compound terms (for example, mother-in-law) and indicating that a word is broken at the end of a line. Hyphens are also used in some prefixes and in edge cases to prevent ambiguity or misreading. They are distinct from the en dash and the em dash, which are longer and serve different typographic roles.

In typography, a hyphen is typically not surrounded by spaces in most languages. Digital text may also involve related characters, such as the soft hyphen (U+00AD), which marks a potential line-break point, and the non-breaking hyphen (U+2011), which prevents a break at that position. Modern word processing and typesetting frequently employ automatic hyphenation, applying language-specific rules to determine where a word may be split.

Rules for hyphenation vary by language and style guide. English commonly hyphenates certain compound adjectives before a noun (a well-known author) and various formed compounds or prefixes (semi-final, ex-president). Some languages prefer closed compounds without hyphens, while others use hyphens more liberally. Readability, clarity, and established orthographic conventions influence hyphenation choices, and practices can evolve over time.

Historically, hyphens emerged to improve line justification and readability in printing. In contemporary typography, hyphenation is often controlled by software and dictionaries, balancing traditional rules with the demands of digital text layout. See also hyphenation, dash, typography.