According to my 1933 Oxford Universal Dictionary, “good-bye” and “co-operate” are hyphenated, neither “leg room” nor “birth rate” can be run together into single word, and “teenager” doesn’t exist.

Do hyphens really matter? Can the omission of a hyphen in compound words that should be hyphenated change the intended meaning? What are the functions of a hyphen? What are the rules for hyphenating ...

According to my 1933 Oxford Universal Dictionary, “good-bye” and “co-operate” are hyphenated, neither “leg room” nor “birth rate” can be run together into a single word, and “teenager” doesn’t exist.

I saw a discussion on a closed Facebook site about hyphenating compounds, and there was considerable variation of views. The use of hyphens is a vexatious matter even for experienced writers, so ...

According to my 1933 Oxford Universal Dictionary, "good-bye" and "co-operate" are hyphenated, neither "leg room" nor "birth rate" can be run together into single word, and "teenager" doesn't exist.

Carlos Cajina from Nicaragua asks: Compound adjectives can be: 1. Joined by a hyphen 2. Appear as a single word 3. Appear as two separate words. Is there a rule - or set of rules - to know when to use ...

Call me crazy. I'm dog-sitting this weekend, and we already have three dogs of our own. The visiting dog is a 1-year-old miniature beagle, and our beagle mix thinks he's a long-lost brother. They race ...

What is the difference in meaning between these two phrases: i) hazardous-waste management and ii) hazardous waste management? In the first phrase ‘hazardous-waste management’, the waste is hazardous.

A reader has complained that writers ”are now sprinkling hyphens like pepper over salad, but unlike the pepper, they are deadening instead of stimulating.” The examples he cited were compound ...

Yet another tragedy has exposed our shameful, glaring inadequacies. Of course, there has never been a shortage of tragic incidences, but just when one hopes the last tragedy taught us a lesson, ...