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Styling that ultimately takes hold for a compound may be determined by nothing more than editorial preference, there

To choose freely among open, hyphenated, and closed alternatives, even though the term has been used in English forĪn extended period (for instance, lifestyle, life–style, or life style). For many terms, it is often completely acceptable Take years to achieve a high degree of consistency in their format. When compounds begin to be used widely, there may be significant variation in how writers style them, and it can Meanings of their component words also will not be listed in the dictionary, even if they are permanent and Most compounds whose meanings are self–evident from the However, a dictionary generally will not list temporary compounds, thoseĬreated to meet a writer's need at a particular moment. Because of the variety of standard practice, the choice among the styles for a given compound represents one of the most common and vexing of all style issues writers encounter.Ī good dictionary will list many permanent compounds, compounds so commonly used that they have become Compounds are written in one of three ways: solid (as in cottonmouth), hyphenated ( screenwriter–director), or open ( health care). Compounds can be formed by combining two or more words (as in double–check,Ĭost–effective, farmhouse, graphic equalizers, park bench, around–the–clock, or son of a gun), by combining prefixes or suffixes with words (as in ex–president, shoeless, presorted, or uninterruptedly), or by combining two or more word elements (as in macrophage or photochromism). How do you decide whether a compound should be written as one word, separate words, or hyphenated words? CompoundsĪ compound is a word or word group that consists of two or more parts that work together as a unit to express a