'False friends' are words in one language that look like words in another language, but which have very different meanings. There are a number of false friends in German, where the words look ...

Meghan Walbert is Lifehacker's Managing Editor. She has a degree in journalism and has worked at Lifehacker as a writer and editor since 2018, covering parenting, foster care, online child safety, and ...

According to my 1933 Oxford Universal Dictionary, “good-bye” and “co-operate” are hyphenated, neither “leg room” nor “birth rate” can be run together into single word, and “teenager” doesn’t exist.

Compound words are made up of two parts of speech. For example, the compound noun handkerchief is made up of two nouns: hand + kerchief. Semantically, compound words are very interesting, since their ...

Let's talk about the plurals of compound nouns. I submit to you: passers-by, hangers-on, attorneys general, brothers-in-law, and culs-de-sac. What about "month end" how would that be pluralized?

Do hyphens really matter? Can the omission of a hyphen in compound words that should be hyphenated change the intended meaning? What are the functions of a hyphen? What are the rules for hyphenating ...

Russ in New Jersey had a question about hyphens: In “northwestern California landmark” should “northwestern California” be hyphenated? “I’m not sure if it’s simply a matter of preference or if the ...

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Compound words are made up of two parts of speech. For example, the compound noun handkerchief is made up of two nouns: hand + kerchief. Semantically, compound words are very interesting, since their ...