‐

Punctuation mark

 * 1) * 1945 April 30, ad for Listerine shaving cream in LIFE, vol. 18, no. 18, page 7:
 * 35¢ TUBE LASTS AND L‐A‐S‐T‐S
 * 1) * 1945 April 30, ad for Listerine shaving cream in LIFE, vol. 18, no. 18, page 7:
 * 35¢ TUBE LASTS AND L‐A‐S‐T‐S
 * 1) * 1945 April 30, ad for Listerine shaving cream in LIFE, vol. 18, no. 18, page 7:
 * 35¢ TUBE LASTS AND L‐A‐S‐T‐S
 * 1) * 1945 April 30, ad for Listerine shaving cream in LIFE, vol. 18, no. 18, page 7:
 * 35¢ TUBE LASTS AND L‐A‐S‐T‐S

Usage notes
Compare:
 * - (hyphen-minus)
 * ‐ (regular hyphen)
 * ‑ (non-breaking hyphen)
 * (soft hyphen)

The similar-looking hyphen-minus (-) is used more frequently, but is used for many purposes (as a hyphen, minus sign, and dash). The hyphen symbol is therefore more specific.

Most text systems consider a hyphen to be a word boundary and a valid point at which to break a line when flowing text. However, this is not always desirable behavior. The non-breaking hyphen looks identical to the regular hyphen, but is not treated as a word boundary.

A soft hyphen is generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed. See below:

Margaret&shy;Are&shy;You&shy;Grieving&shy;Over&shy;Goldengrove&shy;Unleaving&shy;Leaves&shy;Like&shy;The&shy;Things&shy;Of&shy;Man&shy;You&shy;With&shy;Your&shy;Fresh&shy;Thoughts&shy;Care&shy;For&shy;Can&shy;You&shy;Ah&shy;As&shy;The&shy;Heart&shy;Grows&shy;Older&shy;It&shy;Will&shy;Come&shy;To&shy;Such&shy;Sights&shy;Colder&shy;By&shy;And&shy;By&shy;Nor&shy;Spare&shy;A&shy;Sigh&shy;Though&shy;Worlds&shy;Of&shy;Wanwood&shy;Leafmeal&shy;Lie&shy;And&shy;Yet&shy;You&shy;Will&shy;Weep&shy;And&shy;Know&shy;Why&shy;Now&shy;No&shy;Matter&shy;Child&shy;The&shy;Name&shy;Sorrows&shy;Springs&shy;Are&shy;The&shy;Same&shy;Nor&shy;Mouth&shy;Had&shy;No&shy;Nor&shy;Mind&shy;Expressed&shy;What&shy;Heart&shy;Heard&shy;Of&shy;Ghost&shy;Guessed&shy;It&shy;Is&shy;The&shy;Blight&shy;Man&shy;Was&shy;Born&shy;For&shy;It&shy;Is&shy;Margaret&shy;You&shy;Mourn&shy;For

In American English, compound words are formed more liberally than in British English. Hyphenated compound nouns are also much more common in colloquial American English.

Synonyms

 * - (hyphen-minus), often used for its ease.
 * · (interpunct)
 * – (en-dash)
 * – (en-dash), when the constituent parts already contain hyphens.

Synonyms

 * and, hyphen or -hyphen-, cum or -cum-, /, slash