open compound
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.16 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A compound word with spaces in it, for example, high school, school bus, or science fiction.
Example Sentences
- "Two-word compounds--named open compounds in Edward N. Teall's Meet Mr. Hyphen--are in fact very common."
- "Thus such words, to give only a very few examples, as pismire, baise-mains, favonian, hearstling, happenstance, chanticleer, and open compounds like guardhouse lawyer,sidewalk superintendent and slush fund are registered without any kind of status label ..."
- "Further, the language permits open compounds, as indicated above, so that we might conjecture such spellings as "battlecry, battle-field, battle ground, battle-piece and battlewise.""
- "Should the Yiddish noun ris-uf 'start' be written as an open or a hyphenated compound? The MEYYED gives it as an open compound (ris uf) in the English- Yiddish ..."
- "The examples also exemplify the three forms that compound words take: 1) open compound (snail mail); 2) hyphenated compound (eagle-eyed); and 3) solid compound (bookworm)."
- "A subentry is an open compound (e.g., express contract) whose major element is the noun (contract at whose alphabetical place the subentry is entered."
Inflected Forms
Frequently Paired Words
closed compound
hyphenated compound