what is the meaning of hyphenatedword?

Hyphenated words are words that are joined together by a hyphen and function as a single unit of meaning.

The rules are so complex that just so as to avoid confusion or due to lack of a conventional pattern of using hyphens between words, people either use them according to their personal wish or simply join the words, dropping the hyphens in between. However, your composition shouldn’t be incomprehensible. The rules may seem complicated at first, but soon you’ll be able to put hyphens in their place.

1. Adjectives

Unite two adjectives by using hyphens in order to modify a noun. However, this is done only before nouns.

Examples: well-trained swimmer, etc.

2. Adverbs

However, keep in mind that these rules apply to adjectives but not to a similar-looking class of words; adverbs ending in “-ly” aren’t hyphenated to the verbs they modify: “a brightly colored poster,” “a quickly understood lesson.” However, most other adverbs are (“little-known fact,” “best-kept secret”); compounds with “least,” “less,” “most,” and “more” are exceptions.

3. Nouns

Nouns are usually compounded, too, of course (“footstep,” “mountaintop”) but some, like “life-form” and “mind-set,” resist the closure that most of their like have accepted. Compounds that can be used as verbs and nouns alike differ in that the former are often hyphenated (“I had to jump-start his car”) and the latter aren’t (“He asked me for a jump start”). Another example is “fast track”: “We fast-tracked the project,” but “It’s on the fast track.”)

4. Multiword Coumpounds

Multiword compounds like “vis-a-vis,” “back-to-back,” and “up-to-date” always include hyphens. Beware, though: “Head to toe,” although a common expression, does not appear in the dictionary with or without hyphens, so omit them (unless the phrase modifies a noun: “a head-to-toe inspection”). Familiar word strings that describe nouns are usually hyphenated before and after: “next-to-last person in line,” “the reply was matter-of-fact.”

Hope the concept of hyphenated words is clear to you now.