hyphenate
/ˈhaɪf(ə)ˌneɪt/verb, noun
hyphenate is a verb meaning “to break a word at the end of a line according to the hyphenation rules by adding a hyphen on the end of the line” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-Y-P-H-E-N-A-T-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does hyphenate mean?
verb
- 1
to break a word at the end of a line according to the hyphenation rules by adding a hyphen on the end of the line.
- 2
to join words or syllables with a hyphen.
you have to hyphenate his surname as it's double-barrelled
noun
- 1
A person or object with multiple duties, abilities or characteristics, such as "writer-director", "actor-model", or "singer-songwriter".
- 2
A person whose ethnicity is a multi-word hyphenated term, such as "African-American".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce hyphenate?
- US /ˈhaɪf(ə)ˌneɪt/
As a noun (“A person or object with multiple duties, abilities or…”): /ˈhaɪfənət/.
Hyphenate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hyphenate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hyphenate
- hyphenates present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- hyphenating participle, present
- hyphenated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hyphenate?
Hyphenate appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 103,949th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Hyphenate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to break a word at the end of a line according to the hyphenation rules:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mettre la césure |
| German | abteilen, trennen |
| Portuguese | hifenizar, hifenar, translinear |
| Spanish | guionizar, guionar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does hyphenate come from?
From hyphen + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).