hyphens: suffixes

Follow the guidelines below when deciding whether to use a hyphen before the suffixes like, wide, odd, strong, fold and score.

like

Write the compounds with like as one word, except where this would result in a double l or where the compound is a temporary one coined for a specific purpose or text:

• businesslike
• childlike
• ladylike
• lifelike

but

• petal-like
• nut-like

wide

Since usage depends on the degree of familiarity of the compound, no general rule can be stated. Note the following:

• worldwide
• storewide

but

• industry-wide
• province-wide

odd, strong

Hyphenate compounds made up of a numerical expression plus odd or strong:

• sixty-odd
• thirty-strong

fold, score

Write compounds with fold and score as one word, except when the numerical expression itself already has a hyphen:

• twofold
• sixtyfold
• threescore
• fourscore

but

• twenty-two-fold