Words that rely on hyphens for clarity

As the “AMA Manual of Style” says, “The hyphen is a connector; it may join what is similar and also what is disjunctive . . . it divides as well as marries.”

There are rules for when to use a hyphen and when not to use a hyphen, and style manuals have different guidelines from one another. Then there are the exceptions to the guidelines. Finally, when it comes to hyphens, all style guides include the catch-all phrase: “When in doubt, consult a dictionary.”

In this week’s post, we are going to discuss a very clear-cut hyphenation rule: hyphens within a word. Because meaning matters, some words are hyphenated to distinguish them from other words. What follows are words that need hyphens in order to keep their meanings clear.

re-cover/recover
That chair looks like it belongs in a funeral home. Let’s re-cover it before we put it in the reception area.
Has IT been able to recover any of the content that was lost when the CMS crashed?

re-creation/recreation
The “new” navigation for the website is just a re-creation of the old navigation.
Last year’s company picnic was more stress creation than recreation.