Half-way or halfway?
half-way is an adverb meaning “Alternative spelling of halfway”; halfway is an adverb meaning “Half of the way between two points”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. half-way is written with a hyphen and halfway as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between half-way and halfway?
| half-way | halfway | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | adverb, adjective |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of halfway | Half of the way between two points Moderately; somewhat Middle; midway; being in the middle of the way or distance |
| Example | none recorded | I was already halfway home when I missed my keyring |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌhæfˈweɪ/ /hɑːfˈweɪ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 11 times per million words |
Sources: half-way and halfway in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of half-way and halfway
half-way
- 1
Alternative spelling of halfway
halfway
- 1
Half of the way between two points
I was already halfway home when I missed my keyring
- 2
Middle; midway; being in the middle of the way or distance
John blacked out at the halfway point of the marathon
- 3
Moderately; somewhat
a halfway decent place to sleep
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, half-way or halfway?
half-way is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; halfway 11 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search half-way vs halfway?
“half-way vs halfway” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“halfway vs half-way”, “half-way or halfway”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.