E-mail or email? Email. The Associated Press dropped the hyphen on 18 March 2011, the University of Oxford's style guide lists e-mail as a don't, and in 2007 the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary took the hyphen out of about 16,000 compounds. Our view, stated plainly: the hyphen is not dying. It is leaving nouns that have settled into one word or two, and holding its ground in compound adjectives before a noun, where it stops a misreading.
EdCitation publishes this guide. Every date, number and quotation below comes from the source named beside it, read on 2 October 2026, and a story we could not trace is marked unconfirmed.
EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work, and we say so with pride: every word and every hyphen you hand in is yours. It checks and cites instead. Cite a source keeps a hyphenated surname exactly as the publisher's record gives it, and Mechanics QA reads a finished paper for formatting and the slips a spell-checker lets through.
E-mail or email: which is correct?
Email: AP since 2011, and the University of Oxford's style guide today. AP announced the change in a post on 18 March 2011 that began "Language evolves.", timed for the ACES editors' conference that day (AP Stylebook, 2011). Romenesko (2011) reported that it took effect at 3 a.m. EDT the next morning, that other e- terms such as e-book and e-commerce kept their hyphen, and that cellphone and smartphone became single words in the same update.
British usage was already moving. In 2007 the BBC called e-mail "one battleground": the BBC and the New York Times were defending the hyphen while much of the world wrote email, and the Shorter Oxford's editor, Angus Stevenson, said the hyphenated form was starting to look like something a grandmother might write (Rohrer, 2007). Today the University of Oxford (n.d.) style guide gives "Send me an email" as a do and the hyphenated version as a don't.
And e-book?
Chicago's 18th edition closed ebook and added esports as one word (University of Chicago Press, n.d.). AP kept e-book in 2011; its free pages did not tell us whether that has changed since.
Did the Shorter Oxford really drop 16,000 hyphens?
Yes. The sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, launched in September 2007, removed the hyphen from about 16,000 compounds (Zimmer, 2007). Some closed up: bumble-bee became bumblebee, leap-frog leapfrog and pigeon-hole pigeonhole. Others opened: ice-cream became ice cream, fig-leaf fig leaf and pot-belly pot belly (Rohrer, 2007).
Why the editors did it
Reuters (2007) reported that the editors searched a corpus of more than 2 billion words of writing published since 2000, and quoted Stevenson: people were "not really sure what they are for". He told the BBC that the dictionary only reflected what people read and was not saying the hyphen should go completely. Geoffrey Leech, a Lancaster University linguist, cited data from 1961 and 1991 suggesting a 5% fall in hyphen use over those three decades, and blamed fast typing of e-mails in part (Rohrer, 2007).
What the headlines missed
Zimmer (2007), an Oxford University Press editor, called the hyphen a way station between an open and a closed compound: hand writing, then hand-writing, then handwriting. Many were never in danger, such as mother-in-law and self-esteem, and some went long ago: Keats wrote "To-day".
What a corpus study found later
Sun and Baayen (2021) counted hyphenated compounds in the Corpus of Historical American English, from the 1810s to the 2000s, and found both their number and their variety rising along an S-curve; hyphenation, they concluded, "does not seem to disappear easily". The findings need not clash: the Shorter Oxford judged headwords in recent British writing, Sun and Baayen counted hyphenated compounds in running American text, and they cite Sanchez-Stockhammer (2018) for the finding that compounds placed before a noun tend to take the hyphen.
Where did the hyphen come from?
From Greek, by way of Late Latin. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates English hyphen to the 1620s, from a Greek word for a mark joining two syllables or words, built from an adverb meaning "together", literally "under one" (Harper, n.d.). The verb was simply hyphen in 1814; hyphenate and hyphenation date from 1881. In print, the hyphen has been in use since at least Gutenberg's time, as both Zimmer (2007) and the BBC put it.
Two popular details we could not trace to a source we could read, so both stay unconfirmed: that the Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax first described the mark, and that Gutenberg's Bible set a slanted double hyphen. The hyphen's longer cousins are in a history of the em dash.
What were the hyphenation wars?
Fights over a hyphen have been about identity as often as spelling.
Hyphenated Americans, 1915
Hyphenated American, for an immigrant citizen suspected of divided loyalties, is recorded from 1889 (Harper, n.d.). Theodore Roosevelt told the Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on 12 October 1915 that there was "no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism", adding that he did not mean naturalised Americans (Roosevelt, 1915/2022).
Czecho-Slovakia, 1990
In spring 1990, Slovak politicians demanded that their country's name be written with a hyphen, Czecho-Slovakia. Zahradníček (2017) recounts this "hyphen war" and its outcome after protracted rows: the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.
Dual heritage terms, 2019
AP Stylebook (2019) announced on 24 April 2019 that it no longer hyphenates dual heritage terms such as African American and Asian American. APA's rule is in our guide to inclusive and bias-free language.
When should you hyphenate compound words?
Hyphenate a compound adjective that comes before its noun, leave it open after the noun and after an -ly adverb, and close most prefixes; for a compound that is a word in its own right, copy the dictionary your style names. These are the compound adjective hyphen rules, style by style:
| Case | APA 7 | Chicago 18 | University of Oxford |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compound adjective before a noun | Hyphen: a high-anxiety group | Hyphen, even with an -ly adjective: an early-morning walk | Hyphen: an up-to-date list |
| The same words after the noun | Usually open: a group with high anxiety | Usually open (it was half finished), though some keep the hyphen | Open: the list was up to date |
| After an -ly adverb | Not on APA's free page | Not in the free summary | No hyphen: a finely tuned ear |
| Open compound noun as a modifier | Not on APA's free page | Open unless ambiguous: high school students | Not stated |
| Prefixes | Usually closed: preexisting, reevaluate | Mid- hyphenated unless Merriam-Webster closes it | Only to avoid confusion, or before a capital or number: pre-eminent, anti-Thatcherism, pre-2000 |
| Dictionary | Merriam-Webster and the APA Dictionary of Psychology | Merriam-Webster | Not named |
| Source | American Psychological Association (2019b) | University of Chicago Press (n.d.) | University of Oxford (n.d.) |
AP's stylebook is paywalled, but its 2024 switch to Merriam-Webster came with no hyphen after out-, post-, pre- and re- (Fu, 2024).
The dictionary settles the permanent compounds
APA calls a compound that is not in the dictionary a temporary compound, and says its hyphen is there to prevent misreading (American Psychological Association, 2019b). Its own example of an open compound is health care, and that is where the styles part: AP fused healthcare, childcare and daycare into single words in April 2026, along with ceasefire, and its stylebook editor, Anna Jo Bratton, called the healthcare decision "a long time coming" (Crowley, 2026). Write the form your style's dictionary gives, and use it every time.
Six steps for your own paper
- Find your style. Paste the brief into EdCitation's free Check your paper: the citation style is one of the rules it lists, beside the sentence that names it.
- Look the compound up in that style's dictionary. If it is listed, copy it: email, ebook, health care in APA.
- If it is not listed, hyphenate it before the noun only: a high-anxiety group, but a group with high anxiety.
- Leave out the hyphen after an -ly adverb: a finely tuned ear, never a highly-respected tutor.
- Keep the source's own hyphens in titles and names: Cite a source builds each reference from the publisher's record. Capitals after a hyphen are in title case or sentence case.
- Run the final checks: Mechanics QA for formatting and slips, and Verify references, free, for the list.
Hyphenated words list: what changed, and when?
Each row is a decision on the record, with its source.
| Term | Now written | Who changed it, and when | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP, 18 March 2011; Oxford's style guide agrees | AP Stylebook (2011); University of Oxford (n.d.) | ||
| e-book | ebook | Chicago, 18th edition; AP kept e-book in 2011 | University of Chicago Press (n.d.); Romenesko (2011) |
| bumble-bee, leap-frog, pigeon-hole | bumblebee, leapfrog, pigeonhole | Shorter Oxford, 6th edition, 2007 | Rohrer (2007) |
| ice-cream, fig-leaf, pot-belly | ice cream, fig leaf, pot belly | Shorter Oxford, 6th edition, 2007 | Rohrer (2007) |
| African-American, Asian-American | African American, Asian American | AP, 24 April 2019 | AP Stylebook (2019) |
| out-, post-, pre-, re- words | no hyphen | AP, 2024 | Fu (2024) |
| cease-fire | ceasefire | AP, April 2026 | Crowley (2026) |
| healthcare, childcare, daycare | one word each | AP, April 2026 | Crowley (2026) |
| then-president | now hyphenated | Chicago, 18th edition | University of Chicago Press (n.d.) |
| mother-in-law | keeps both hyphens | No change expected | Zimmer (2007) |
How do hyphenated surnames work in a reference list?
Copy the name exactly as the work prints it, hyphen and all. APA's own example is Santos-García, S. (American Psychological Association, 2019a), and Lee (2017a) keeps the hyphenated surname whole in both places: Rivera-Gutierrez, D. J. (2016) in the list, (Rivera-Gutierrez, 2016) in the text.
Initials, name changes and two people
- A hyphenated given name keeps its hyphen between the initials, with no space: Larson, J.-P. for John-Paul Larson, a rule Morehead State University's library (2026) takes from section 9.8 of the APA manual; we did not find it on APA's free pages. Other styles' initials are in names in references across cultures.
- A name change is cited as printed on each work. Lee (2017b) gives Hartley (2010) and Hartley-Jones (2017) for one author, and puts every Hartley entry before the Hartley-Jones ones in the list.
- Two people, not one double name, take an en dash in Oxford's style, as in Lennon–McCartney compositions, to tell them from a single hyphenated name (University of Oxford, n.d.).
What Cite a source returned
On 2 October 2026 we gave the DOI of Sanchez-Stockhammer's book, 10.1017/9781108181877, to EdCitation's Cite a source. In APA 7 it returned, word for word:
Sanchez-Stockhammer, C. (2018). English compounds and their spelling. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108181877
The in-text citation came back as (Sanchez-Stockhammer, 2018): the surname whole, the hyphen kept, and Christina reduced to the single initial C. In Vancouver the author came back as "Sanchez-Stockhammer C.", hyphen kept.
A second run shows why the byline still matters. For Sun and Baayen's article, the publisher's record files the middle name Harald as part of the surname. Cite a source moved it back to the given names and returned "Sun, K., & Baayen, R. H. (2021)" and (Sun & Baayen, 2021). That matches the byline, R. Harald Baayen, and the way the paper cites the author's earlier work, Baayen et al., the self-citation test Lee (2017a) recommends. When a record and a byline disagree, the byline wins.
How does EdCitation help with the hyphens in your paper?
By checking everything around your choices and changing none of them. EdCitation looks a reference up in the publisher's record and never writes one, which is why the Sanchez-Stockhammer entry above kept its hyphen: the record held it.
Mechanics QA, the last read by rule
In our view, Mechanics QA is the best last read EdCitation offers for a paper held to APA 7, because it works by rule: no model reads your paper, and every finding names the rule it broke and the fix. Mechanics QA checks font, size, spacing, margins, title page, headings and the reference list against the APA 7 student paper; finds comments, tracked changes, placeholders and template text left in the file; matches each citation to the list and looks each reference up in the publisher's record; and flags figures that do not add up or disagree between sections, and the slips a spell-checker lets through. Hyphens are not on its published list of checks: e-mail or email, and keeping to one, stay with you. Mechanics QA is part of Pro, at $8 a month or $72 a year, and a free account can run three checks a month (pricing).
Find sources and Verify references, free
EdCitation's Find sources searches about 300 million published works: on 2 October 2026, "hyphen compound spelling" returned 2,983, led by a 2011 study, "The hyphen as a segmentation cue in triconstituent compound processing". Verify references marks each entry verified, "check this" or not found, flags retracted papers, and never shows "could not check" as "not found". Other marks have their own guides: the semicolon, the apostrophe and the interrobang.
Quick questions
Is it e-mail or email?
Email. AP dropped the hyphen in March 2011, and the University of Oxford style guide lists e-mail as a don't.
Did the Shorter Oxford really drop 16,000 hyphens?
Yes. Its sixth edition, in 2007, removed the hyphen from about 16,000 compounds, closing some (bumblebee) and opening others (ice cream).
Do you hyphenate a compound adjective after the noun?
Usually not. A high-anxiety group, but a group with high anxiety; Chicago lists some compounds that keep the hyphen after the noun too.
How do I write a hyphenated surname in APA?
Exactly as printed, in the list and the text: Rivera-Gutierrez, D. J. (2016) and (Rivera-Gutierrez, 2016). A hyphenated given name keeps its hyphen between initials: Larson, J.-P.
Will EdCitation fix the hyphens in my essay?
No. EdCitation never changes a word or a mark of your work. Cite a source keeps names as the record gives them, and Mechanics QA, in Pro, checks formatting and slips; the hyphens stay your choice.
References
- American Psychological Association. (2019a). Elements of reference list entries. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry
- American Psychological Association. (2019b). Hyphenation principles. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/hyphenation
- AP Stylebook [@APStylebook]. (2011, March 18). Language evolves.Today we change AP style from e-mail to email, no hyphen. Our editors will announce it at #ACES2011 today [Post]. X. https://x.com/APStylebook/status/48798366980780033
- AP Stylebook [@APStylebook]. (2019, April 24). AP style has changed: We no longer use a hyphen in dual heritage terms including African American and Asian American [Post]. X. https://x.com/APStylebook/status/1121055621980336128
- Crowley, M. (2026, April 29). Handle with care: AP style drops the hyphen in healthcare, childcare and daycare. Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/ap-style-healthcare-hyphen-change-aces-conference-copy-editing/
- Fu, A. (2024, April 5). Associated Press Stylebook makes Merriam-Webster its official dictionary. Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2024/ap-stylebook-update-2024-merriam-webster/
- Harper, D. (n.d.). Hyphen. In Online etymology dictionary. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/hyphen
- Lee, C. (2017a, May 4). What's in a name? Two-part surnames in APA Style. APA Style Blog. An archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20250404062011/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-two-part-surnames-in-apa-style.html
- Lee, C. (2017b, May 10). What's in a name? Inconsistent formats and name changes. APA Style Blog. An archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20231201063955/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-inconsistent-formats-and-name-changes.html
- Morehead State University. (2026). Step 1: Author. APA citation style guide (7th edition), Camden-Carroll Library. https://moreheadstate.libguides.com/apa7th/sbsc1
- Reuters. (2007, September 23). Hyphens perish as English marches on. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20925013
- Rohrer, F. (2007, September 20). Small object of grammatical desire. BBC News Magazine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7004661.stm
- Romenesko, J. (2011, March 18). AP Stylebook: It's now email, instead of e-mail. Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2011/ap-stylebook-its-now-email-instead-of-e-mail/
- Roosevelt, T. (2022). Americanism: Address delivered before the Knights of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, October 12, 1915. Project Gutenberg. (Original work published 1915) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68152
- Sanchez-Stockhammer, C. (2018). English compounds and their spelling. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108181877
- Sun, K., & Baayen, R. H. (2021). Hyphenation as a compounding technique in English. Language Sciences, 83, Article 101326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101326
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.). What's new in the 18th edition. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/help-tools/what-s-new.html
- University of Oxford. (n.d.). Punctuation. University of Oxford style guide. https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation
- Zahradníček, T. (2017, March 14). Federalization: The path to demise. Aspen Institute Central Europe. https://www.aspeninstitutece.org/article/2017/federalization-the-path-to-demise/
- Zimmer, B. (2007, September 27). The lowly hyphen: Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. OUPblog. An archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20071104131706/http://blog.oup.com/2007/09/hyphens/