Compounds and hyphens
Overview
Aim to be clear and consistent. What will be easiest for your reader to understand?
Use consistent spellings in any material you’re working on.
Compound words can be written as:
- hyphenated (co-worker, step-parent)
- open (seat sale)
- closed or solid (courthouse, website)
As they’re more commonly used, compounds often move from open to hyphenated to closed.
There’s never been a consistent set of rules for compounds. But here are some general rules to follow:
- Hyphens are seldom used in compound nouns that are well-established like high school teacher or mental health professional.
- Hyphenate to avoid doubling a letter as in co-ordinate or co-operate.
- Compound adjectives are often hyphenated before the noun like 12‑year‑old child.
- Use hyphens if the meaning could be confused as in resign or re-sign or if a compound could be difficult to read correctly as in co-opt.
Established style guides have detailed sections about compounds and lists of examples. Our goal is to highlight what’s most relevant to our work. We can add more details and examples based on what you need.
Spelling of common compounds
These are the spellings we recommend for our information.
| Recommended spellings | |
| child care (noun) | not childcare |
| child-care (adjective) | for example, child-care expenses |
| co-operate | not cooperate |
| co-operation | not cooperation |
| co-worker | not coworker |
| decision-maker | for example, substitute decision‑maker |
| not E-mail or e-mail | |
| front-line worker | not frontline worker |
| home care (noun and adjective) | |
| health care (noun) | |
| health-care (adjective) | for example, health-care costs |
| in person (adverb) | for example, the hearing was held in person |
| in-person (adjective) | for example, in-person hearing |
| lay off (verb) | |
| layoff (noun) | |
| non-binary | not nonbinary |
| non-profit (noun and adjective) | |
| payday | |
| paycheque | |
| pay stub | |
| percent | not per cent |
| self-employed (noun and adjective) | |
| stepchild | |
| step-parent | |
| subtopic | |
For more information, refer to:
- The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling
- The Canadian Press Stylebook
- Editing Canadian English
You’ll find these books in the CLEO office. Or ask one of CLEO’s editors for guidance.
You might create a custom style sheet for compound words that:
- relate more directly to your content, or
- you spell differently than what’s in our list.