The hyphen (‐ ) is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with dashes (–, —, ― ), which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign (− ) which is also longer. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. Usage in English Hyphens are mostly used to break single words into parts, or to join ordinarily separate words into single words. Spaces shouldn't be placed between a hyphen and either… (More on Hyphen)