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I've looked on Google and StackExchange for the answer and am having no luck. This HAS to have been answered and asked before now... so I'm sorry in advance if this is a bad question or a repeat.

Matt E. Эллен
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Jujucat
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1 Answers1

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Semiannual is one word, without hyphens, according to Merriam-Webster. Semiannual

timthebomb
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  • Yeah, but there are a lot of contradictory opinions, for example Oxford Dictionaries, who has it listed as hyphenated. – Jujucat Jun 03 '16 at 20:53
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    It seems as though in English, generally, words begin as hyphenated to highlight the words that the new one is composed of. However, over time the new word becomes more known and the hyphen is dropped. I think semiannual may fall under that category. – timthebomb Jun 03 '16 at 20:55
  • I'm in agreement, but would love more definitive evidence. – Jujucat Jun 03 '16 at 20:57
  • @Jujucat You might enjoy reading this: http://theeditorsblog.net/2015/08/15/compound-words-using-this-cheat-sheet-is-not-cheating/ – Lumberjack Jun 03 '16 at 21:00
  • Two great examples listed in that blog are e-mail and web-site which both went through the transition very quickly and relatively recently. – Lumberjack Jun 03 '16 at 21:00
  • This also might provide some more insight and useful discussion. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/68642/should-i-use-hyphens-with-prefixes-like-sub-and-semi – timthebomb Jun 03 '16 at 21:02
  • You two strike me as correct! Thanks very much for your help. – Jujucat Jun 03 '16 at 21:11