hyphenation
hy·phen·a·tion/ˌhaɪfəˈneɪʃən/noun
hyphenation is a noun meaning “The inclusion of hyphens; especially, the correct locations of hyphens” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-Y-P-H-E-N-A-T-I-O-N and has 4 syllables (hy·phen·a·tion), and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hyphenation is hyphenations.
What does hyphenation mean?
noun
- 1
The inclusion of hyphens; especially, the correct locations of hyphens.
Print the article without hyphenation if you're not sure where to put them.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce hyphenation?
- /ˌhaɪfəˈneɪʃən/
Hyphenation has 4 syllables, split hy·phen·a·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hyphenation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hyphenation
- hyphenations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hyphenation?
Hyphenation appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th 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).
Hyphenation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense inclusion and location of hyphens:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | césure |
| German | Silbentrennung, Worttrennung, Bindestrichschreibung |
| Portuguese | hifenização, hifenação |
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 hyphenation come from?
From hyphen + -ation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).