hyphenate

hyphen +‎ -ate

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪf(ə)ˌneɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪfənət/

hyphenate (third-person singular simple present hyphenates, present participle hyphenating, simple past and past participle hyphenated)

1. (transitive) to break a word at the end of a line according to the hyphenation rules by adding a hyphen on the end of the line.
2. (transitive) to join words or syllables with a hyphen.

   you have to hyphenate his surname as it's double-barrelled

hyphenate (plural hyphenates)

1. A person or object with multiple duties, abilities or characteristics, such as "writer-director", "actor-model", or "singer-songwriter".
2. A person whose ethnicity is a multi-word hyphenated term, such as "African-American".
   • 2006, Nick Adams, Making Friends With Black People, page 15:

     We seem to have settled on African-American, and at first glance it certainly does seem logical. […] Not to mention what happens when hyphenates marry other hyphenates and have baby hyphenates.

• person