style guide: hyphens

The best rule about hyphens is that if you are unsure whether a word has a hyphen, look it up in a dictionary.

Yet, there are some general rules:

1. In fractions: two-thirds, one-half.
2. To put words together to make your meaning clearer: little-used car, little used-car.
3. In the names of aircraft: DC-10, MiG-23.
4. To make an adjective out of two or more words: right-wing party, five-year-old boy. But do not overdo it: a once-every-two-week meeting.
5. To make a noun out of a verb with a preposition: build-up, lay-off, pay-off, round-up.
6. Directions: north-east, south-west.
7. Avoid with ranges. Use”to” instead of a hyphen for ranges: say “from 1965 to 1982” instead of “1965-82”. But if you must, say “in 1965-1982”.

Here are some common words that might cause trouble. Most of the list comes from The Economist but I changed them over to Oxford spellings since that is what I use:

ad hoc, agribusiness, air force, air power, airbase, aircraft carrier, airfield, airspace, airtime, antibiotic, Antichrist, anticlimax, antidote, anti-Semitic, antiseptic, antitrust, any more, arm’s length, Attorney General

bailout, bedfellow, bell-ringer, best-selling, bilingual, birth, blackboard, blue blood, blueprint, bookmaker, brother-in-law, build-up, businessman, buyout, bypass

call-up, cash flow, catchphrase, ceasefire, chief of staff, childcare, chock-a-block, clockmaker, coalminers, coastguard, codebreaker, comeback, commander-in-chief, common sense, cyberspace

deal-maker, director general, district attorney, dot-com, drawing board

email, endgame

faint-hearted, fallout, farmworker, field marshal, fieldwork, fig leaf, fine-tooth comb, first-hand, foothold, forever, fox-hunting, front line, front runner, fund-raiser

get-together, girlfriend, goodwill, gunrunner

half-hearted, hand-held, hand-picked, handout, hard line, headache, healthcare, heir apparent, hijack, hip hop, hobnob, home page, home-grown, home-owner, hothead

ice cream, infra-red, intergovernmental, Internet

kerb-crawling, know-how, kowtow

lacklustre, landmine, landowner, landowner, laptop, lay-off, lieutenant colonel, lifetime, like-minded, long-standing, loophole, lopsided, lukewarm

machine gun, machine tool, major general, metalworker, midweek, Midwest, minefield, multilingual, multiple

nationwide, Neoplatonism, nevertheless, news-stand, nitpicker, no one, no-man’s-land, nonetheless, nuclear power station

offline, offshore, oilfield, online, online, onshore, outgun, overpaid, overrated, override, overrule, overrun

pay-off, payout, peacekeepers, peacemaker, peacetime, petrochemical, policy-maker, post-war, pothole, pre-war, pressure group, prisoners of war, profit-making, pull-out

question mark

rain check, rainforest, rate, recreate, roadblock, round-up, Rustbelt

schoolteacher, seabed, Secretary General, set-up, shake-out, ship-broker, shipbuilder, shipowner, shortlist, shutdown, some day, soya bean, spillover, stand-alone, stand-off, start-ups, steelworker, stock market, streetwalker, strongman, stumbling block, sub-machine gun, subcommittee, subcontinent, subcontract, subhuman, Sunbelt

takeover, task force, tear gas, think tank, Third World War, threshold, time bomb, timetable, transatlantic, transpacific, troublemaker, turning point, turnout

under way, underdog, underpaid, underrated, undersecretary

vice versa, vice-president, videodisc

Wal-Mart, wartime, website, Wi-Fi, windfall, workforce, working party, worldwide, worthwhile

year-end

See also:

• style guide
• spelling
• troublesome words
• Oxford spelling
• names and capitalization