Editing Hyphen (section)

==== Prefixes and suffixes ====
[[Prefix]]es (such as ''de-'', ''pre-'', ''re-'', and ''non-''<ref name="footnote_prefix_list">A fairly comprehensive list, although not exhaustive, is given at [[Prefix#List of English derivational prefixes|Prefix > List of English derivational prefixes]].</ref>) and [[suffix]]es (such as ''{{nowrap|-less}}'', ''{{nowrap|-like}}'', ''{{nowrap|-ness}}'', and ''{{nowrap|-hood}}'') are sometimes hyphenated, especially when the unhyphenated spelling resembles another word or when the [[affix]]ation is deemed misinterpretable, ambiguous, or somehow "odd-looking" (for example, having two consecutive [[phonemic orthography|monograph]]s that look like the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]]s of English, like e+a, e+e, or e+i). However, the unhyphenated style, which is also called ''closed up'' or ''solid'', is usually preferred, particularly when the [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivative]] has been relatively familiarized or popularized through extensive use in various contexts. As a [[rule of thumb]], affixes are not hyphenated unless the lack of a hyphen would hurt clarity.

The hyphen may be used between vowel letters (e.g., ''ee'', ''ea'', ''ei'') to indicate that they do not form a [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]]. Some words have both hyphenated and unhyphenated variants: ''{{nowrap|de-escalate}}/deescalate'', ''{{nowrap|co-operation}}/cooperation'', ''{{nowrap|re-examine}}/reexamine'', ''{{nowrap|de-emphasize}}/deemphasize'', and so on. Words often lose their hyphen as they become more common, such as ''[[email]]'' instead of ''{{nowrap|e-mail}}''. When there are tripled letters, the hyphenated variant of these words is often more common (as in ''{{nowrap|shell-like}}'' instead of ''{{not a typo|shelllike}}'').

Closed-up style is avoided in some cases: possible [[homograph]]s, such as ''[[recreation]]'' (fun or sport) versus ''{{nowrap|re-creation}}'' (the act of creating again), ''retreat'' (turn back) versus ''{{nowrap|re-treat}}'' (give [[therapy]] again), and ''{{nowrap|un-ionized}}'' (not in [[ion]] form) versus ''unionized'' (organized into [[trade union]]s); combinations with [[proper noun|proper]] nouns or adjectives (''{{nowrap|un-American}}'', ''{{nowrap|de-Stalinisation}}'');<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/426348/2805.htm | contribution = Hyphenated Words: A Guide | title = The Grammar Curmudgeon | publisher = City slide}}.</ref><ref name="Grammar book">{{Citation | url = http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp | title = Punctuation | publisher = Grammar book | contribution = Hyphens}}.</ref> [[acronym]]s (''{{nowrap|anti-TNF antibody}}'', ''{{nowrap|non-SI units}}''); or numbers (''{{nowrap|pre-1949 diplomacy}}'', ''{{nowrap|pre-1492 cartography}}''). Although ''{{nowrap|[[proto-oncogene]]}}'' is still hyphenated by both ''Dorland's'' and ''Merriam-Webster's Medical'', the solid (that is, unhyphenated) styling (''protooncogene'') is a common variant, particularly among oncologists and geneticists.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

A [[diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] may also be used in a like fashion, either to separate and mark off monographs (as in ''coöperation'') or to signalize a [[vowel|vocalic]] terminal e (for example, ''[[Brontë family|Brontë]]''). This use of the diaeresis peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was never applied extensively across the language: only a handful of diaereses, including ''coöperation'' and ''Brontë'', are encountered with any appreciable frequency in English; thus ''reëxamine'', ''reïterate'', ''deëmphasize'', etc. are seldom encountered. In borrowings from Modern French, whose [[French orthography|orthography]] utilizes the diaeresis as a means to differentiate [[grapheme]]s, various English dictionaries list the dieresis as optional (as in ''naive'' and ''naïve'') despite the juxtaposition of a and i.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}