Definition of "hyphen" in English

noun

1. The symbol "‐", typically used to join two or more words to form a compound term, or to indicate that a word has been split at the end of a line.

2. (figuratively) Something which links two things of greater significance than itself.

3. Someone who belongs to a marginalized subgroup, and can therefore described by a hyphenated term, such as "German-American", "female-academic", etc.

verb

1. (transitive, dated) To separate or punctuate with a hyphen; to hyphenate.

conjunction

1. Used to emphasize the coordinating function usually indicated by the punctuation "-".