Questions tagged [compound-words]
The compound-words tag has no usage guidance.
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The word "ornamental" : is it an opinion adjective, a purpose adjective, or part of a compound noun here?
Upon reviewing my notes on the order of adjectives, I saw that "ornamental" was listed as an opinion adjective. However, wouldn't ornamental be a "purpose" or "type" ...
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Is Hyphen a must with compound adjectives? [duplicate]
I have following sentence on a product packaging as a tagline.
Easy to use kitchen tools to simplify your workload.
I've asked a few native speakers and they said, that "Easy to use" would ...
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What is the correct use of dashes in complex phrasal adjectives in British English used in scientific writing?
Are dashes used correctly according to British English rules in the phrases below that appear in published peer-reviewed scientific journals and related articles? If not, why not and what is the ...
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is there a rule to determine whether a word is a closed compound word
I am working on a computer algorithm to detect closed compound words in texts.
Give the definition of closed compound words:
"Closed compound words are two or more words that are joined together ...
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What kind of noun is "Bookkeeping"?
It's not a gerund since "bookkeep" isn't a verb, is it?
Is "bookkeep" a verb?
Please, can someone help me understand the properties of this word? Is it, for example, a compound ...
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Adding -wise to the end of a word [closed]
Can you please tell me what -wise added to a word means? For example,
Point-wise basis algorithm.
Class-wise basis algorithm.
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A word for being willing to accept the decisions and/or actions of machines
Is there a word that describes the attitude of a human willingly accepting the decisions and/or actions of machines (automation, robots, control systems, etc).
e.g. I have just bought a new car with ...
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Identifying Compound words in Modern English
Compound words like SNOWMAN etc, are obvious compound words in Modern English, as both words that make up the compound word exist as words in Modern English.
However, words like SHEPHERD aren't words ...
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Can a compound modifier include a verb or be a sentence?
Recently, my significant other and I were sharing our reactions to an image of someone who looked much older than they actually were on social media. We were texting each other.
I captioned the ...
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Doubling of the letter 'p' when compounding two word [closed]
I am trying to name a little computer program I wrote.
I would like to name it mapit as a compound of map and it.
I was wondering if it should rather be mappit, with the 'p' doubled as in mapping.
I ...
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“Half an hour” and “half hour” adverbs
If the rate per hour is the hourly rate, what do you call the rate for half an hour? What is the rate for 2 hours known as?
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Time in the morning for breakfast/time for breakfast in the morning?
Can anyone help me out here?
Which is right and more standard among the following?:
I don't have time in the morning for breakfast
**OR**
I don't have time for breakfast in the morning
...
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Is "darkweb" one word or two words? [duplicate]
I observed the word "darkweb" in newspapers of late, and wondered if it is one word or two words. I could not get a definite answer when I did a Google search. No one seems to have addressed ...
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Hyphenating Compound Nouns
Grammarly says hyphenating is necessary for a compound adjective before a noun as follows.
The municipal government is funding a community-based education system.
Wind-powered generators can be ...
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Single opening with multiple doors: "trapdoor" or "trapdoors"
Is it "a trapdoor" or "trapdoors" for one opening with two or more doors covering it? One example is the one(s) covering Black Horse Inn's cellar.
Clearly it is plural when there ...
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What is the difference between a portmanteau and a kenning?
Their definitions seem to blur for me, as well as compound words in general. I'm thinking it might be a "square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square" concept but I'm not certain.
...
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Is there a general rule for the usage of hyphens in compound words?
For example for words like in-depth or long-term I would always use a hyphen, and I tend to favor using them in general unless I'm certain there shouldn't be one, but often I find both used for words ...
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Correct use of hyphens in compound modifiers
The thing with hyphens is, the more I think about whether to use a hyphen, the more I get confused regarding the same. Also, I've observed that each person has a different view when it comes to ...
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Why "Coronavirus" is written without space? shouldn't it be "Corona virus"? [closed]
What is the rule for compound words in English? I know that this is pretty common in German but for English, I find it irregular in terms of the compound words.
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Combining open compounds using hyphen in enumerations
In German, when enumerating stuff, one could use an "Ergänzungsstrich". This means that parts of compound words in enumerations that are equal can be shortened like this:
Ich mag Eisenbahn-, ...
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The difference between compound words and genitive cases
I have a problem with genitive cases and compound words, I don't understand the difference between a genitive case and a compound word (noun + noun structure). I was trying to understand them by ...
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Word for meaning across the solar system
Is there a single term in english that means "to cross or to traverse a solar system"?
For crossing the Atlantic we have transatlantic, to cross the continent we have transcontinental and even to ...
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word, noun, and compound noun
A noun is defined in Oxford as:
A word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun).
A ...
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How is 'compound noun' defined in CGEL?
This question is specifically about The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddleston and Pullum.
Here's CGEL's definition of word:
In order to avoid possible misunderstanding we will ...
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General way to describe words like "understand", based on archaic senses of their component parts
The word "understand" is fascinating. A surface parse of the word gives little insight into how the components are related to the concept associated with the word. In contrast, with words like "...
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Is there a term for words like 'frenemy'?
I read the word 'frenemy' for the first time in a BBC news item which described the current relationship of President Trump and Kim Jong-Un as 'frenemies'.
A person with whom one is friendly, despite ...
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Word request: what's a startup-like synonym for the word "grapevine"
Single word request: Grapevine is a word used to describe the spread of rumors via spoken communication. Can you think of a similar 2-syllable, startup-like synonym for grapevine?
I've tried a ...
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Using the word 'figure' in a sentence
I know 'go figure' is used commonly, I would like to know if 'figure that!' can be used alternatively too?
Pls advise.
Thanks
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Why are they 'nude photos'? [duplicate]
Recent news events in the US have resulted in many headlines about "nude photos of young women" and variations.
Obviously it's the women who are nude, not the photos, so why does this phrasing ...
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‘Dog issue’: a compound or a noun phrase?
I’m so confused of the following expression:
‘the hot dog issue’.
The dialogue is following:
A: Have you heard of the hot dog issue?
B: Yes, I have. These days, the dog’s euthanasia problem is very ...
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What does "open recs" means?
This is entire message:
As time goes to infinity we plan on having Stripes building products very close to as many of our customers as possible, which is (much) more widely distributed than the ...
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can cattleguard be spelled as one word
i'm unable to find cattleguard listed as a single word anywhere, but I think it ought to be an acceptable spelling
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The compound noun "race car"
Most dictionaries spell the compound noun "race car" as two separate words, but there is also "racecar" as one word on a lot of websites. My question is: is it ok to use it as one word "racecar"?
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What do you mean by Communication Network? [closed]
In the following concept, what do you mean by Communication Network?
There is an association (an inter-continental one) in which each member participates in building relation among its member through ...
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Confusing preposition with words [closed]
[Implication of] AND [implication for]
Although I have tried to find the meaning of these two word combinations, it hasn't allowed me to differentiate their meanings properly. Any explanation on ...
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time-consuming vs time consuming?
Should the phrase time consuming hyphenated or not?
In the context I'm using it in, the hyphen seems right.
"Painting the walls with chalkboard paint and providing chalk allows customers to make ...
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Use of adjectives in compound nouns
Here are two compound nouns
Heavy pipe fitting works.
The biggest pipe fitting works.
In the first compound noun the adjective heavy qualifies the first noun pipe. But in the second compound noun, ...
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Words that can be decomposed entirely into parts which are anagrams of each other [closed]
I recently noticed that teammate is composed of two anagrams, and was wondering if anyone had any other examples of this, or even better, a name for this phenomenon?
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Any other compound words with opposite meanings like "bittersweet"? [closed]
I was curious if there were other words like "bittersweet". To clarify, I'm interested in compound words where the 2 sub-words' meanings are opposites.
Is "bittersweet" unusual in this respect? I ...
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Which spelling should I use: "grass roots" or "grassroots"?
Both Oxford Online and Merriam-Webster dictionaries show grass roots with a space between the two words in the compound noun.
But this ngram shows substantially more hits for grassroots without a ...
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Is Time Constrained acceptable?
I've composed a sentence but I'm not sure if it's acceptable.
This is a time constrained campaign.
I want to make the time constraint sound like an adjective but I don't know how. I just ended up ...
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What do you call the track made by two wheels?
In centuries gone by, before roads were made, what were the trails/paths/roads called that were made by the frequent passage of wagon teams or carriages joining towns together?
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Can I call a vacuum cleaner cleaner a vacuum cleaner?
Can I call a vacuum cleaner cleaner a vacuum cleaner?
This was written in a hallway. Can you help me dissect what's going on here, along with an appropriate response?
By dissect, I mean I'd like to ...
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How should the phrase "thank you" be written in the following sentence? [duplicate]
According to prevalent formal writing style rules,
Should the phrase be in quotes (as in "thank you" or thank you)?
Should T of Thank be capital?
Should there be a hyphen?
They did not give him a ...
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Word for "valid excuse"?
I'm searching for a word that would mean an excuse is valid. An excuse sounds like something that is negative, but a valid excuse it positive/neutral. Is there such a word?
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How to avoid ambiguity and convey specific meaning in compound names ? (name + name)
There are already other questions regarding compound names (noun + noun) and now I better understand the general rule, which seems to be, unless dealing with an exception, to only make plural one of ...
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Compound nouns versus Modified nouns
1/ Can all noun modifier + head-noun constructions be regarded as compounds ?
2/ How can we test or identify that a two-noun word is a compound or just an
attributive noun + noun construction ? ...
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The use of "over-" as an excess term (as in "overzealous")
Is the word "overzealous" only used in a negative sense? Because I understand that "over-exaggerate" is used in a negative way due to it's double-excessive use. Would that mean any excessive term ...
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Should hyphenated compound words be permitted to break across lines?
When using a hyphenated compound word (i.e., a compound adjective, verb, or noun) in a document and the word splits across two lines due to it being at the end of a line, is it considered improper to ...
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Difference among Show as, Show with, and Show by
Is there any differences among theses sentences? Which one is better?
We show the quantity with n.
We show the quantity as n.
We show the quantity by n.
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