: a punctuation mark - used especially to divide or to compound words, word elements, or numbers
Examples of hyphen in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
Her lawyer previously said in court that Vartannivartanians was the correct version of her name, with no hyphens.
—Elena Santa Cruz, AZCentral.com, 29 Aug. 2025
Ace Ratcliff, SELF, 10 July 2018
See All Example Sentences for hyphen
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
Now the New York Historical (a rebranding last year dropped both fussy hyphen and fusty noun) is achieving its deferred ambitions, with a hundred-and-seventy-five-million-dollar expansion.
—Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
Her lawyer previously said in court that Vartannivartanians was the correct version of her name, with no hyphens.
—Elena Santa Cruz, AZCentral.com, 29 Aug. 2025
Verb
Normally, closed caption subtitling bleeps words in a variety of different ways: phrases, such as (bleep), [expletive], or [censored] may be used, though sometimes hyphens or asterisks are substituted instead (f–k, f---, or f*** are all examples.
—Ace Ratcliff, SELF, 10 July 2018
See All Example Sentences for hyphen
Cite this Entry
“Hyphen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyphen. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share