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Hyphenated compound words are written with hyphensconnecting the words. For example, “well-being” is a hyphenated compound word. Hyphenated compounds are typically noun phrases being used as adjectives (e.g. “long-term”) or as verbs (e.g., “strong-arm”) or verb phrases being used as nouns (e.g., “check-in”) or as adjectives (e.g., “mind-blowing”). ...

Closed compound words are written without hyphens or spaces. For example, “babysitter” is a closed compound word. Closed compounds can play a wide variety of roles, functioning as nouns (e.g., “weekend”), pronouns (e.g., “herself”), prepositions (e.g., “into”), adverbs (e.g., “however”), adjectives (e.g., “barefoot”), conjunctions(e.g., “whereas”),...

The table below provides a representative selection of compound words, categorized by whether they are open, hyphenated, or closed and by what part of speechthey function as. You can observe some patterns in the table. For instance, there are many compound nouns; compound adjectives tend to be hyphenated; and some parts of speech only form compound...

When you want to pluralize a noun that consists of multiple words, it can be difficult to know which word to pluralize. In a closed compound, it’s easy: the pluralization always comes at the end, since it’s written as one word (e.g., “backpacks,” “houseboats,” “payouts”). In open and hyphenated compounds, it varies; the final word is sometimes plur...

Compound words are one way of combining multiple words into one unit, but there are other ways too. Read on to see how compound words differ from: 1. Portmanteaus 2. Contractions 3. Acronyms 4. Simple and complex words

Want to test your understanding of compound words? Check out the worksheet below. Try to find and highlight all the compound words in each sentence.

If you want to know more about nouns, pronouns, verbs, and other parts of speech, make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations and examples.