A Quiz on Treatment of 75 Compound Words

A Quiz on Treatment of 75 Compound Words A Quiz on Treatment of 75 Compound Words A Quiz on Treatment of 75 Compound Words By Mark Nichol Open, hyphenated, or closed? Usage guides, dictionaries, and style manuals may differ in their treatment of the following words, so there’s not necessarily one right answer except for the purposes of this exercise: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. All terms in this list are treated as open compounds. Which ones should be left as is, and which should be hyphenated or closed, and in which usages? The correct forms according to Merriam-Webster are listed at the bottom of the page. 1. Air borne 2. Anti social 3. Audio visual 4. Back log 5. Blood pressure 6. Book keeping 7. Bull’s eye 8. By law 9. Catch all 10. Check book 11. Child like 12. Clearing house 13. Court martial 14. Crew neck 15. Cross reference 16. Dog sled 17. Father land 18. Far reaching 19. First hand 20. Free style 21. Freeze dried 22. Fresh water 23. Go between 24. Great uncle 25. Half brother 26. High school 27. Higher ups 28. House hold 29. Inter agency 30. Key word 31. Jewel like 32. Land mass 33. Life size 34. Light year 35. Long term 36. Lower case 37. Main frame 38. Mass produced 39. Mid week 40. Mother ship 41. Multi purpose 42. Near collision 43. North west 44. Off shore 45. On site 46. Over supply 47. Pine cone 48. Pipe line 49. Policy maker 50. Post war 51. Pre existing 52. President elect 53. Pro life 54. Pseudo intellectual 55. Quasi realistic 56. Real time 57. Record breaker 58. River bed 59. Sea coast 60. Self control 61. Semi final 62. Shell like 63. Six pack 64. Snow melt 65. Socio economics 66. Step mother 67. Stomach ache 68. Strong hold 69. Toll free 70. Two fold 71. Under water 72. Vice president 73. Wild life 74. World wide 75. Year round Answers 1. Airborne 2. Antisocial 3. Audiovisual 4. Backlog 5. Blood pressure (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate, except when combined with another adjective, as in â€Å"high-blood-pressure medication†) 6. Bookkeeping 7. Bull’s-eye 8. Bylaw 9. Catchall 10. Checkbook 11. Childlike 12. Clearinghouse 13. Court-martial 14. Crew neck (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate) 15. Cross-reference 16. Dogsled 17. Fatherland 18. Far-reaching 19. Firsthand 20. Freestyle 21. Freeze-dried 22. Freshwater 23. Go-between 24. Great-uncle 25. Half brother (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate) 26. High school (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate) 27. Higher-ups 28. Household 29. Interagency 30. Keyword 31. Jewel-like (because of the collision of two ls) 32. Landmass 33. Life-size 34. Light-year 35. Long term (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun) 36. Lowercase 37. Mainframe 38. Mass-produced 39. Midweek 40. Mother ship (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate) 41. Multipurpose 42. Near collision (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun) 43. Northwest 44. Offshore 45. On-site 46. Oversupply 47. Pinecone 48. Pipeline 49. Policymaker (not in the dictionary, but other -maker constructions, such as winemaker, are closed; if it looks wrong, leave it open) 50. Postwar 51. Preexisting 52. President-elect 53. Pro-life 54. Pseudo-intellectual (not in the dictionary, bust pseudo- constructions in which the second word starts with a vowel, such as pseudo-event, are hyphenated; those in which the second word starts with a consonant, such as pseudopod, are closed) 55. Quasirealistic (not in the dictionary, but most quasi- constructions, such as quasiperiodic, are closed; it if it looks wrong, hyphenate it) 56. Real time (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun) 57. Record breaker (not in the dictionary, but all other compounds with breaker, such as â€Å"circuit breaker,† are open) 58. Riverbed 59. Seacoast 60. Self-control 61. Semifinal 62. Shell-like (hyphenate only because of the collision of the ls) 63. Six-pack 64. Snowmelt 65. Socioeconomics 66. Stepmother 67. Stomachache 68. Stronghold 69. Toll free (hyphenate when the phrase modifies a following noun) 70. Twofold (but hyphenate with a number, as in 10-fold) 71. Underwater 72. Vice president (always open, though other compounds containing vice, such as vice-regent and viceroy, are treated differently) 73. Wildlife 74. Worldwide 75. Year-round Scoring guide 0-25 correct: Always look it up. 26-50 correct: Always look it up. 51-75 correct: Always look it up. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Types of RhymeThe Six Spellings of "Long E"13 Theatrical Terms in Popular Usage