8 Uses, 4 Misuses
The hyphen (-) is a short horizontal mark indicating the joining of word-elements (as there), the division of syllabic elements at the end of a line, or elongation in the sounding of a spoken word.
506 Use a hyphen to connect the parts of a phrasal adjective—that is, a phrase whose words function together to modify a noun.
• A chaise drew up in front of the parsonage, the horse pricking his ears at the bell-drum-fife noise. (Carl Sandburg)
• The whole piece was kind of a go-figure story. (David Foster Wallace)
• Fox Renick suddenly became engaged in a sort of coddle-and-feed operation, with Rory Cade as the target. (Sheila Bosworth)
• A half-grown boy wearing a wagon-wheel-size hat crouched awkwardly on the posts. (Annie Proulx)
• Being competitive, risk-taking, status-conscious, dedicated, single-minded, persevering—it can make all the difference to success. (Helena Cronin)
• It may even be that I unconsciously assume the famous it’s-a-nice-place-to-visit-but-I’d-hate-to-live-here look. (Joseph Wood Krutch)
However frenzied or disarrayed or complicated your thoughts might be, punctuation tempers them and sends signals to your reader about how to take them in. We rarely give these symbols a second glance: they’re like invisible servants in fairy tales—the ones who bring glasses of water and pillows, not storms of weather or love. . . . Their presence is more felt than seen. It’s the words that will capture your eyes, enticing them to dally and glisten. One quick blink and you’ve caught the comma’s or slash’s or hyphen’s message, huddled in a parenthetical clasp. The accomplishments are no less astonishing for occurring in a flash.
—Karen Elizabeth Gordon
The New Well-Tempered Sentence
507 Use a suspensive hyphen to indicate the idea that the final word of a second phrasal adjective goes also with the elliptically stated first phrasal adjective, or that a suffix could be joined with another (especially an earlier) affix.
• Interval training, in which you alternate from low- to high-impact aerobic activity, has also been shown to be quite effective. (Sanjay Jain)
• These are short, two- or three-minute searches. (Natalie Goldberg)
• In Minnesota, you’ll find an awful lot of Toms and Marys and pages on pages of Johnsons, Andersens, and other -sons and -sens. (David Haynes)
508 Use a hyphen in certain compound nouns and noun phrases when the words are particularly closely associated (check a good current dictionary, though nonce phrases won’t be listed). [The first three bulleted examples are admittedly old-fashioned.]
• He always liked to get visitors alone in the billiard-room and tell them stories about a mysterious lady, a foreign royalty, with whom he had driven about in London. (C. S. Lewis)
• Her pantomime of his action suggests a man pursuing something on the ground before him and striking at it ever and again with his walking-stick. (H. G. Wells)
• There was not a sound in the room, except the ticking of a floor-clock in a corner. (Ellery Queen)
• “They all cheered,” said my great-grandfather. (Norman Mailer)
• In his Innocents Abroad, he struck an attitude—let’s-have-no-more-of-this-European-nonsense—and though inwardly he must have grown out of it, he did his best to maintain it. (J. B. Priestley)
509 Use a hyphen when writing out fractions and two-word numbers under 100.
• To scout out new mining properties, they hired a man named John Hays Hammond for $250,000 a year plus a one-fourth share in all new mines he discovered—and he proved to be a bargain at the price. (Joseph Epstein)
• Ninety-eight percent of Agassi Prep’s students are minority. (Bill Clinton)
• Nine and three-quarters. (J. K. Rowling)
510 Use a hyphen to show hesitation within a word, stammering, stuttering, lengthening of a sound, or accentuating syllables.
• “I’m sorry, Ezra. I didn’t mean—I-I’m nervous tonight.” (Eugene O’Neill)
• “I wonder if I love him” became a song the way she said it, and she would sing over and over to herself: “I won-der, I won-der.” (John O’Hara)
• “If we had the g-guts! I could go outside to-today, if I had the guts. My m-m-mother is a good friend of M-Miss Ratched, and I could get an AMA signed this afternoon, if I had the guts!” (Ken Kesey)
• He strikes a great-man pose and yells at no one in particular, “Isn’t it fun to be the cho-re-o-gra-pheur?” (Terry Teachout)
511 Use a hyphen in proper names when appropriate.
• Al-Farabi’s doctrine of emanation became generally accepted by the Faylasufs. (Karen Armstrong)
• The Home Guards were making their first attack from the police-headquarters building on Schneidermühlen-Gasse. (Günter Grass)
• An outfit out of Denver called Holloway Brothers has offered to buy Koker-Hanks. (John Grisham)
512 Use a hyphen to separate groups of numbers that are not ranges (such as telephone numbers and social-security numbers) or when spelling out a word letter by letter.
Not this: #3517–6 (en-dash)
But this: #3517-6 (hyphen)
Not this: SSN 315—37—1982 (em-dashes)
But this: SSN 315-37-1982 (hyphens)
Not this: B–A–R–B–A–R–A H–I–N–E–S (en-dashes)
But this: B-A-R-B-A-R-A H-I-N-E-S (hyphens)
513 Use a hyphen with the suffixes “-less” and “-like” when the root word ends with “-ll.”
Not this: callless
But this: call-less
Not this: thrillless
But this: thrill-less
But this: shell-like
Not this: trolllike
But this: troll-like
514 Generally, don’t use a hyphen after a prefix unless (1) the solid form might be confusing (e.g., “anti-intellectual”), (2) the primary word is capitalized (e.g., “non-European citizen”), (3) the prefix is part of a noun phrase (e.g., “non-contract-law doctrine”), or (4) the unhyphenated form has a different meaning (e.g., “prejudicial” vs. “pre-judicial”).
Not this: The sound of his old Chevy lurching down the road was as un-mistakable as smoker’s cough.
But this: The sound of his old Chevy lurching down the road was as unmistakable as smoker’s cough.
Not this: Having chest hair was considered a pre-condition for making it on the Varsity.
But this: Having chest hair was considered a precondition for making it on the Varsity.
Not this: Public Health officials urged college students to wash their hands frequently with anti-bacterial soap.
But this: Public Health officials urged college students to wash their hands frequently with antibacterial soap.
515 Don’t use a hyphen (or even a pair of hyphens) in place of an em-dash.
Not this: In the summer it was too hot to sit outside scheming - all plans had to be made inside.
But this: In the summer it was too hot to sit outside scheming—all plans had to be made inside.
Not this: Her grandmother would have been pleased--she being a stringently upright woman--but she had died four years earlier.
But this: Her grandmother would have been pleased—she being a stringently upright woman—but she had died four years earlier.
516 Don’t use a hyphen in a two-word adjective phrase formed with an “-ly” adverb and a participial adjective.
Not this: federally-recognized tribe
But this: federally recognized tribe
Not this: publicly-traded company
But this: publicly traded company
Not this: widely-held view
But this: widely held view
Not this: mildly-disconcerting errors
But this: mildly disconcerting errors
But: not-so-widely-held view
517 Don’t use a hyphen in a phrasal verb.
Not this: Please set-up the tables.
But this: Please set up the tables.
Not this: We should back-off.
But this: We should back off.