COMPOUND NOUNS

Definition :

When we put two or more words together to create a new word, we have made a compound noun.

Nouns of more than one word are called compound nouns.

e.g.

noun + noun	police officer	ice-cream	firefighter
noun + verb	carwash	haircut	milkshake
verb + noun	cross-road	cookbook	jump rope
adjective + noun	black eye	blue jeans	hotdog
adverb + noun	on-looker	downtime	overtime
adverb + verb	input	output	upswing

Compound nouns can take three forms: hyphenated, solid and open.

HYPHENATED COMPOUNDS

When two or more words are connected by one or more hyphens, the result is a hyphenated compound. Some compound words are hyphenated to avoid being misread or ambiguous.

e.g.

sister-in-law	jack-in-the-box	state-of-the-art
shout-out	mind-set	five-year-old

SOLID COMPOUNDS

Solid compounds are words that are used as a single unit of meaning and it is closed up as solid, or closed, compounds.

e.g.

rollback	restroom	whatever
breakfast	needlepoint	slingshot

OPEN COMPOUNDS

Sometimes no hyphenating or closing up is necessary to form a compound. Open compounds are words that are used as a single unit of meaning but are still written separately as two words.

e.g.

wet nurse	roller coaster	whatever
sleeping bag	first aid	mug shot

Learn More about Compound Words:

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