Compound words

Have all hyphenated and compound words been used correctly ... 

Should you use insectlike or insect-like Do not precede like with a hyphen unless the letter 1 would be tripled. Examples bill-like, lifelike, businesslike, shell-like. Do precede like with a hyphen if the word is three syllables, e.g., intestine-like. Do precede like with a hyphen if the word is a proper name, e.g., Clinton-like. An exception to this mle—use Christlike. Do precede like with a hyphen if the word is a compound word. On the other hand, when like is a prefix, then follow with a hyphen when used as a prefix meaning similar to, e.g., like-minded. No hyphens are used in words that have meanings of their own, e.g., likelihood, likewise, likeness. 

There has, in recent years, been some debate about the need to take vitamin tablets. Vitamin is a compound word derived from vital amines . The vitamins are a range of essential chemicals needed by our body. They were given letters of the alphabet in the order they were discovered and the letters bear no relationship to their structures... 

Compound words are two or more terms used to express a single idea. Compound words in common usage are listed in most dictionaries. Many are hyphenated, but many are not. 

In titles and headings, capitalize each component of compound words if the component would be capitalized when standing alone. 

Some compound words are always spelled with a hyphen check your dictionary when you re in doubt. 

Compound words made from combining verb forms are frequently hyphenated The psychiatrist insisted his birthday presents be shrink-wrapped. 

Two, three, or more letters of the word or words being abbreviated, or in the case of German compound words, the first two or three letters of one or all of the elements in the compound. This type of abbreviation is reflected in examples 33 through 71. 

Compound Words. At this point I cannot escape mentioning a few basic characteristics of German compound nouns and compound verbs. As you know, German— especially scientific German—has many compound nouns. Since their number is practically unlimited and since most are not listed in dictionaries, translators find it helpful to remember the basic words in the compound noun rather than the compound noun itself. 

RULE 18 Creating Compound Words— Adding a Word to a Word... 

Putting two words together is often as simple as adding one word to the other. When determining whether or not two individual words in succession can be combined into one compound word, askyourselfifthe combination creates one idea or item. If not, the words should always stay separate. For information on adding prefixes and suffixes to words, review Section One. 

As you learned in the rule about the use of hyphens, there are specific instances where hyphens are used in combining words. Hyphens are used when forming adjectives that appear before a noun, for example. In creating compound words, hyphens are not used. In most cases, you will merge the two words with their spelling intact. 

Composed of vs comprised , 7, 9 Compound predicates, 60 Compound subjects, 49—51 Compound units of measure, 163, 168t Compound words definition, 78 hyphenation, 78—79 in titles and headings, 89 See also Phrasal verbs, Unit modifiers Comprised vs composed of , 7, 9 Computer addresses... 

True suffixes consist of one or more syllables added to root words to modify the meaning and/or to indicate the part of speech—that the completed word is either a preposition or an adverb. Many endings, however, are nouns or adjectives added to a root to form a compound word. Such nouns and adjectives are not true suffixes they are combinations of true suffixes and roots and may be referred to as combining forms or pseudosuffixes. 

Distinctly chemical compound words retain the accent and pronunciation of each portion. 

The accent follows the general rule(ashydr6 meter, bard meter, lactO ineter). Exception words of this class used in the metric system are regarded as compound words, and each portion retains its own accent (as cC ntinie ter, millime ter, kTlome ter). 

Common usage a word that consists of two or more words Two compound words are basketball and textbook. 

This principle can then be generalised to cope with all two word cases, with the idea being that only conventionalised cases are treated as compound words which receive their prominence on the first word. In addition to this, there are a number of semantically driven rules, which range... 

Choose phrase based parses over compound word bases parses... 

Count words with three or more syllables (complex words), not including proper nouns (for example, Djibouti), familiar jargon or compound words, or common suffixes such as -es, -ed, or -ing as a syllable. 

Chemistry has a unique, central position among the sciences (Fig. 1.6). It is so central that much research in chemistry today overlaps physics, biology, geology, and other sciences. You will frequently find both chemists and physicists, or chemists and biologists, working on the same research problems. Scientists often refer to themselves with compound words or phrases that include the suffix or word chemist biochemist, geochemist, physical chemist, medicinal chemist, and so on. 

First used in about 1890, the word photovoltaic is a compound word made of two parts photo, derived from the Greek word for light, and volt, relating to the electricity pioneer Alessandro Volta. Therefore, photovoltaics could literally be translated as light-electricity. A photovoltaic device or solar cell can convert directly the absorbed photons into electrical charges that are used to energize an external circuit. In principle, a PV material is a semiconductor in nature, characterized by its band-gap. Quantum mechanics determined the input energy in the form of a photon... 

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