From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhyphenhy‧phen /ˈhaɪfən/ ●●○ noun [countable] SLAa short written or printed line (-) that joins words or syllables → dash
Examples from the Corpus
hyphen• The 2 parameters should be separated by a comma or a hyphen.• Answer: a. Why: When creating an unusual adjective from other types of words, use a hyphen.• Besides we were never very sure whether there was a hyphen in the word co-ordination.• A hyphen is an acceptable alternative to a comma.• Until late 1995, she had gone by an Anglicized hyphen name and had been a lifelong Republican.• As you type, WordPerfect will automatically insert a soft hyphen where appropriate, without stopping for you to position the cursor.• Use the soft hyphen in words which would not be hyphenated if they fell in the middle of a line.Origin hyphen (1600-1700) Late Latin Greek, from hyph' hen “under one” 