USING HYPENS
June 18, 2019
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18/6/19 USING HYPENS
Use hyphens for concatenated words: “end-to-end architecture,” “real-time operating system” (but “the computer may analyze the results in real time”), “per-flow queuing,” “flow-enabled,” “back-to-back”.
In general, hyphens are used:
- adding prefixes that would result in double vowels (except for co-, de-, pre-, pro-), e.g., supra-auditory;
- all-: all-around, all-embracing;
- half-: half-asleep, half-dollar (but halfhearted, halfway);
- quasi-: quasi-public
- self-: self-conscious, self-seeking (but selfhood, selfless)
- to distinguish from a solid homograph, e.g., re-act vs. react, re-pose vs. repose, re-sign vs. resign, re-solve vs. resolve, re-lease vs. release
- A compound adjective made up of an adjective and a noun in combination should usually be hyphenated. Examples: cold-storage vault, hot-air heating, short-term loan, real-time operating system, application-specific integrated circuit, Internet-based.
- words ending in -like when the preceding word ends in ‘l’, e.g., shell-like.
