1. plural of hyphen; punctuation marks (-) used to join words or parts of words

Examples

• The editor added hyphens to compound adjectives like ‘well-known’ and ‘state-of-the-art’.
• Many writers forget to use hyphens in numbers like ‘twenty-one’ and ‘ninety-nine’.
• The style guide requires hyphens in words like ‘co-worker’ and ‘pre-existing’.
• She removed unnecessary hyphens from words that don’t need them.
• Hyphens help clarify meaning in phrases like ‘small-business owner’.
• The proofreader checked that all hyphens were properly placed in the document.