For some reason, writers and editors love those little hyphens. They’ll put them just about anywhere, but most often in words that don’t need ’em. Here are 30 words found on Yahoo! that have been split up with one (or sometimes two) of those horizontal characters. Maybe at one time these words were hyphenated, but they aren’t any more.
backstabbing
breakup (noun)
breathtaking
comeback (noun)
counterintuitive
downright
hobnob
latchkey
mainstream
midweek
nevertheless
newfound
nighttime
nonetheless
nonstop
overdo
overexpose
overpriced
overrated
oversized
postpartum
preteen
rendezvous
roundup (noun)
secondhand
sidekick
sightseeing
sourpuss
straightforward
woebegone
Terribly Write 
June 10, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hi, I’m a self-employed Aussie subeditor who used to work in a newsroom where I could turn to more experienced staff to ask their advice about my achilles heel: to hyphen or not to hyphen – compound adjectives vs the wordy title of an entity (ie a low-cost airline vs a courier truck fire, a relief teacher shortage). I never understood the crazy theory behind our use of “mental health nurses” but that was our style; we just loved those crazy nurses!!!!
I’ve been missing my former colleagues’ support but now your’ve just answered my latest dilemma so your site has come in very handy! Thanks!
PS I found a “whether or not” in one of your sections (I think it was the 30 words without hyphens!!!!) 😉
June 10, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Hi, Bettina! Welcome to Terribly Write. I’m glad I could and hope you’ll come back often.
December 10, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Great website! What about coordinate/coordination/coordinator?
January 15, 2010 at 3:06 am
[…] 30 Words That Don’t Need a Hyphen – Terribly […]
January 15, 2010 at 3:06 am
[…] 30 Words That Don’t Need a Hyphen – Terribly […]
March 6, 2010 at 5:29 am
Love reading this site, I usually find out something interesting stuff.
Emily R. from Husky Secrets
May 31, 2010 at 9:53 pm
cool site
June 17, 2010 at 11:25 am
This is good if you’re not working within the constraints of a style guide (some style books may disagree with your list). Thanks!
September 16, 2010 at 7:49 am
Love this, some really useful info. Thanks. Saffy. http://sapphicscribe.wordpress.com
January 20, 2011 at 2:09 am
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May 11, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I seem to have forgotten all the rules for hyphenation. Sadly, it doesn’t really matter; anything goes and it’s accepted (but I won’t get into that). It seems there are no hard and fast rules regarding grammar and style. When I search the internet for answers, I usually have to decide what I see most often, because it seems impossible to determine what is “correct.”
Thank you for your list.
June 4, 2011 at 10:23 am
Hi. Good post. Other rules of hyphenation that people don’t seem to know is not to hyphenate a compound adjectival phrase containing an adverb ending in “-ly” even when the phrase is in front of the noun. EX:
newly furnished house
But:
tight-fitting jacket
And prefixes need a hyphen when they’re used before a capital letter or to avoid confusion with other similarly spelled words written without a hyphen:
re-cover–to cover again (“re-cover the sofa”)
recover–to get back (“recover stolen goods”) or return to normal (“recover from illness”)
un-American
anti-Semite
August 8, 2011 at 11:13 am
Great list. Great blog. I’m sending my middle-school English class to this site, so they realize that good writing really does matter.
August 23, 2011 at 5:21 am
Even MS Word seems to have trouble with hyphenation… my copy wasn’t letting me use the word “breathtaking” without a hyphen!
August 23, 2011 at 5:48 am
MS Word isn’t the most reliable source of spelling advice!
December 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm
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July 3, 2012 at 9:00 pm
The bigger problem is when people connect separate words with unnecessary hyphens. “Let’s go behind-the-scenes” is wrong. Why would you do that? Would you write “Let’s go behind-the-house”? Where you do need hyphens is “Let’s take a behind-the-scenes tour,” to clarify the modified noun.
What really drives me buggy, though, are instances such as this “The 15-year old boy.” Why do so many people drop the second hyphen?
July 3, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Check out my first post for July 4. It’s relevant to your comments.
September 10, 2012 at 8:55 am
I have a coworker who always wants to “brain-storm.” Auuuuuugh! And yet I can’t get anyone to remember the hyphen in “20-minute meeting” or “test-drive.” I’ll keep fighting the good fight with ya!
September 10, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Never give up!
December 10, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Why does the word “misspelled” NOT have a hyphen???
December 10, 2013 at 8:23 pm
I can’t think of any word beginning with the prefix “mis” that includes a hyphen after that prefix. Can you?
June 4, 2015 at 10:04 pm
I would add that these words are also in no need of a SPACE. Something I’m noticing more and more is people – even those educated at Ivy Leagues – not only leaving hyphens out where they need to be (a shark like smile), but injecting single words with spaces (“what ever”, “swim suit”, “heart break”, and I have seen “Face book”). That’s been moving in the direction of de rigueur for years and it drives me a littler ber serk.
June 5, 2015 at 6:23 am
I think you’re right about spaces appearing in words more often now. I hadn’t seen it as a trend until you noted it, but I do see lots of instances every day on Yahoo. I think it’s part of an overall (or is it “over all”?) trend to ignore established rules of grammar, spelling, etc. in favor of speed and expediency.
September 7, 2015 at 8:06 am
This one may be caused by phones and similar devices with autofill. People start to type ‘heartbreak’ and the phone suggests ‘heart’. They accept it, then add ‘break’, but the phone considers ‘heart’ a complete word and puts a space after it.
September 7, 2015 at 9:19 am
That’s one more potential reason for the excessive use of spaces. Thanks for pointing that out!
January 11, 2016 at 2:35 pm
You must be a ber-serk-er. (See what I did there?)
January 11, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Yes, I saw what you did. It was quite ob-vious.
August 17, 2016 at 6:17 am
Quick question: should it be onboarding or on-boarding? I can’t seem to find any info on the web stating which way is correct.
August 17, 2016 at 7:47 am
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it’s onboarding, without the hyphen. The Random House Dictionary prefers onboarding, though on-boarding is acceptable.
September 15, 2016 at 6:23 am
How about free-will offering? We use it a lot in our church bulletins.
September 15, 2016 at 6:31 pm
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, freewill (as an adjective) is one word, without a hyphen.
October 26, 2020 at 1:02 pm
[…] 7. 30 Words That Don’t Need Hyphens: Hi, I’m Megan, and I’m a hypen- addict. […]