The compound word

Examples of Compound Words by Type

Compound words are an easy way to add interest to your writing. By combining two ideas in one word, you can quickly provide all the information needed. These examples of compounds will show you how it's done.

Grandmother Illustration With Compound Word Example

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What Are Compound Words?

A compound word is formed when two words are combined to make a new word. It is one of the ways in which the English language is flexible and always changing, as compound words allow people to create new words as the need arises.

For example, you might use “in” and “side” to create the compound word “inside”.

We should play inside today.

The words “carry” and “over” can make the compound word “carry over”.

We can carry over that surplus into the next sprint.

As you can see, compound words can come in different varieties. Explore examples of each.

Examples of Compound Words

When it comes to compound words, there are three different types that are important: closed-form, open-form, and hyphenated. Dive into how each type of compound word is different.

Closed-Form Compound Word Examples

Closed compound words are formed when two fully independent, unique words are combined to create a new word. For example, you would combine “grand” and “mother” to create the closed-form word “grandmother”. In a sentence, this would look like, “My grandmother is coming over.” These are the most common types of compound words.

For example:

• bullfrog
• snowball
• mailbox
• grandmother
• railroad
• sometimes
• inside
• upstream
• basketball
• anybody
• outside
• cannot
• skateboard
• everything
• schoolhouse
• grasshopper
• sunflower
• moonlight

Open Compound Word Examples

Open compound words are formed when two words remain separate on the page but are used together to create a new idea with a specific meaning. For example, “attorney” and “general” are used to form the open compound word “attorney general”. You could see this in the sentence, “The attorney general holds the power in legal matters.” Other examples of open compounds include:

• peanut butter
• Boy Scouts
• no one
• ice cream
• real estate
• high school
• living room
• sweet tooth
• hot dog
• grand jury
• post office
• full moon
• half sister
• cave in

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Hyphenated Compound Word Examples

Hyphenated compound words are formed when two separate words are joined together by a hyphen. Examples of hyphenated compound words include:

• two-fold
• check-in
• merry-go-round
• father-in-law
• seventy-two
• long-term
• up-to-date
• mother-in-law
• one-half
• over-the-counter

Note that hyphenated compound words are most commonly used when the words being joined together are combined to form an adjective before a noun. For example:

• forty-acre farm
• full-time worker
• on-campus housing
• state-of-the-art features
• family-run busines

However, these hyphenated compound words become open compounds when they are placed after the word they describe. For example:

• The farm has forty acres.
• The worker is full time.
• The housing is all on campus for freshman
• Its features are truly state of the art.
• The business is still family run.

Compound Words in Sentences

Now that you learned about the different types of compound words, see if you can find the compound words in the sentences below.

• My grandfather is coming home for the holidays.
• I really want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• The real estate agent had to take a test to get her license.
• She is a part-time teacher.
• That is our full-time worker.
• I’m so tired of looking for on-campus housing.
• He was seventy-two years old.
• Let’s go play some basketball
• Has anybody seen my binder?

If you have those down, try creating a few sentences using compound words that you create!

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Compound the Reader's Interest

By adding compound words to your writing, you can make your ideas more interesting and descriptive for the reader. The addition of too many compounds can be messy, especially hyphenated compound words; so, be sure to use compound words wisely. Like any seasoning, they are best sprinkled throughout your writing instead of used in every line.

Now, that you have a grasp of compound words, you might want to dive into some compound sentence examples.

M.A. English

• 7th grade
• 8th grade
• 9th grade
• middle school
• high school
• college
• 6th grade

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• What Is a Compound Noun? Definition, Examples and Rules Explained

  When two or more words join together to make a single noun, like keyboard or bookstore, that's a compound noun. The new noun has a new meaning that may be quite different from its starter words. But compound nouns don’t have to be stuck together — depending on the noun, they can be hyphenated (like ten-year-old) or even open (like ice cream).

• When and How To Use a Hyphen ( - )

  Hyphens join related words together in a sentence, such as in father-in-law, five-year-old and sugar-free. They prevent misunderstandings and clarify writing. But when should you use a hyphen — and is a hyphen the same thing as a dash? Find out when a hyphen is necessary, when it’s optional, and when you don’t need one at all.

Compound Words - our list contains over 500 words

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What are Compound Words?

Compound words are made by joining two or more words; the combination creates a new word. They can be formed using two nouns, e.g. basketball, two non-nouns, e. g. blowup, or a noun and non-noun, e.g. sunrise. It is important to note that the words do not always keep their original meaning, e.g. breakfast. Our list of compound words contains 500 words.

There are three types of compound words:

• Closed compound words, e.g., football, peanut,
• Open compound words, e.g., cell phone, high school, and
• Hyphenated compound words, e.g., in-depth, runner-up.

List of Compound Words

To determine if a compound word is one word, two words or hyphenated, use a dictionary to look up the word or our lists below. The list below excludes both fractions and compound numbers from 21 to 91. These words are hyphenated, e.g., two-thirds, one-half, thirty-nine and ninety-one.

Closed Words

These words have no spaces. Our list contains hundreds of words, so we organized them in alphabetical order. Click on a letter below to obtain a list of those compound words.

Open Words

Open compound words have a space between the words. The following are open compound words:

Hyphenated Words

The list below excludes spelled out fractions and compound numbers from 21 to 91. Please note you hyphenate all spelled out fractions, e.g., two-thirds, one-half, and compound numbers from 21 to 91, e.g., thirty-nine, ninety-one. The following are hyphenated compound words:

Source: Fry, E. B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Merriam-Webster Children’s Dictionary, 3rd Edition 2008.

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Options | Examples

Meaning of the word COMPOSITE

Composed of several parts.

See all meanings of the word COMPOSITE

The meaning of the word "WORD"

A unit of speech used to express a separate concept.

See all meanings of WORD

Synonyms0062

None of the ligatures should be used outside of compound words.

This isolated difference between kanji and constituents gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations.

Kunyomi compound words are not as numerous as onyomi words, but not rare either.

However, some forms are still recognized as irregular morphologies, especially forms that occur mainly in verb conjugation, as well as some compound words.

In some analyses, compound words and certain classes of idiomatic expressions and other phrases are also considered part of the lexicon.

Standard German provides compounds for the particle and the associated preposition.

This means that many small compound words can be put together to create a word with a new meaning.

When two words are combined completely, the result is considered a compound word, not a mixture.

A person with schizophrenia may use neologisms, which are compound words that have a specific meaning to the person using them.

The first mention of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary is around 966 CE. e., in the compound word bærlic-croft.

The first mention of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary is around 966 CE. e., in the compound word bærlic-croft.

Slovenia joined the federation as a constituent republic, led by its own pro-communist leadership.

As if it had become an integral part of his body.

This page provides the definition (meaning) of the phrase / expression "compound word", as well as synonyms, antonyms and sentences, if they are available in our database. We strive to make the English-Grammar.Biz explanatory dictionary, including the interpretation of the phrase / expression "compound word", as correct and informative as possible. If you have suggestions or comments about the correctness of the definition of "compound word", please write to us in the "Feedback" section.

Compound words in English

Compound words ( Compo und Word s ) in English make up a considerable layer of everyday vocabulary.

They are formed from two words that are completely different in meaning and often belong to different parts of speech, for example, the word notebook = note (verb "write") + book (noun "book").

Today we will get acquainted with the concept of compound words in English and learn many examples, thus significantly replenishing our English vocabulary.

The formation of compound words in English

I repeat once again that compound words are formed from two words and eventually give a new lexical unit. Very often, compound words mean compound nouns ( Compound Nouns ).

But this is not entirely true, because among the compound words there are also adjectives, for example: fire-resistant (fire-resistant), high-speed (high-speed), etc.

As for the spelling of English compound words, there are several options: together, separately and through a hyphen.

If there is a question of choosing how to write this or that compound word - through a hyphen or separately, the variant of separate writing will be preferable.

Article in the topic:
The difference between an adverb and an adjective in English: how to distinguish them?

English Compound Examples

• Brainstorm - Brainstorm
• Scapegoat Scapegoat
• Aftermath - Aftermath
• Backfire - reciprocal of
• Daredevil Daredevil
• Frostbite - Frostbite
• Iron cl ad - unbreakable rules
• Lighthearted - carefree, happy
• Milestone - progress
• Outlaw - bandit, fugitive
• Panhandle - beg
• Wholesale
• Sunflower
• Backbone - Backbone
• Sweetmeat
• Lifeboat Lifeboat
• Horseshoe
• Greenhouse
• Lighthouse - Lighthouse
• Jellyfish
• Traffic jam
• Grown-up - adult
• Also-ran - loser
• Headache Headache
• Toothbrush - Toothbrush

Article in the topic:
Degrees of comparison of adjectives in English

Stress in compound words

As a rule, the stress in compound words is placed on the first syllable.

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