• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Writing Tips
  • Editing Tips
  • Microsoft Word Tutorials
  • Adobe Acrobat Tutorials
  • YouTube Videos

Erin Wright Writing

Writing Tips for the Real World

  • Hire Me
  • About Me
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • Resources
  • FAQs
  • Contact

How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and Headings

By Erin Wright Leave a Comment

Stack of newspapers with overlay title: How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and HeadingsMost titles and headings are formatted with headline-style capitalization, which means that the first and last words and all the main words in between are capitalized (as demonstrated in the title of this blog post). But how should you capitalize hyphenated words in titles and headings using headline-style capitalization?

The general guideline is to capitalize all the main words in hyphenated words in titles and headings.

Do We Go through a Drive-Thru or Drive-Through?

A Brief Overview of Adobe Acrobat’s Spell-Check Tool

This guideline is supported by three of our primary style guides:1

The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago style)2

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style)3

MLA Handbook from the Modern Language Association (MLA style)4

Exceptions

However, there are several exceptions to this guideline. Let’s look at three of the most common exceptions you may run into in your own writing:

1. Hyphenated words with prefixes

2. Hyphenated words beginning with single letters

3. Hyphenated articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions

See the References section at the bottom of this post for information about these exceptions in relation to the style guides mentioned above.

Exception 1: Hyphenated Words with Prefixes in Titles and Headings

If the hyphenated word in your title or heading starts with a prefix that isn’t a standalone word (e.g., pre, non, de), lowercase the second word.5

Anti-trash and Pro-turtle Alliances Worked Together to Clean the Park

How to De-stress in Five Steps

Exception 2: Hyphenated Words Beginning with Single Letters in Titles and Headings

If the hyphenated word in your title or heading starts with a single letter that isn’t a standalone word, lowercase the second word.6

E-commerce Tricks and Tips

T-shirt Sales Slowed in the First Quarter

Exception 3: Hyphenated Articles, Prepositions, and Coordinating Conjunctions in Titles and Headings

In headline-style capitalization, the following parts of speech are lowercased if they follow a hyphen in a compound:

  • Articles (i.e., a, an, the)
  • Prepositions (e.g., above, under, behind)*
  • Coordinating conjunctions (i.e., for, and, or, but, so, yet, and nor).7

The Breaking-and-Entering Suspect Pled Guilty

Step-by-Step Guide to Growing Cacti

*Note that in some cases, words that normally function as prepositions can instead function as adjectives or adverbs, such as the words thru and through in drive-thru and drive-through shown in the first example in this post. Adjectives and adverbs are capitalized in hyphenated compounds in headline-style capitalization.

Style Guide Alert

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style) recommends lowercasing prepositions and coordinating conjunctions that are three letters or less when using headline-style capitalization. However, all prepositions and coordinating conjunctions over three letters should be capitalized.

Further Reading:

Polish Your Headings with Parallel Structure

How to Create and Customize Headings in Microsoft Word

References

1. The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) isn’t included in this post because it doesn’t use headline-style capitalization. The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 (New York: Associated Press, 2019), 134.

2. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.161.

3. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020), 6.17.

4. MLA Handbook, 8th ed. (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2016), 67–68.

Hyphenated Words with Prefixes

5. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.161.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association doesn’t address hyphenated prefixes directly. However, one of its manuscript editors confirmed in a comment on the APA Style Blog that hyphenated words after prefixes should be lowercased in titles and headings. “Title Case and Sentence Case Capitalization in APA Style,” APA Style Blog, accessed November 13, 2019; See the comment from Chelsea Lee dated March 09, 2017 at 12:20 PM.

The MLA Handbook (MLA style) is seemingly silent on this issue, so its followers should adapt MLA’s general recommendations for headline-style capitalization to work with prefixes in hyphenated compounds.

Hyphenated Words Beginning with Single Letters

6. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.161.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style) doesn’t address words beginning with single letters directly. However, hyphenated single letters are commonly considered prefixes, so APA followers can safely assume that they should lowercase the word after a hyphenated single letter in titles and headings, as explained in note 5 above. In addition, the APA Style Blog lowercased the word book in e-book in one of its own titles. “The Publication Manual Is Available as an E-book,” APA Style Blog, accessed November 13, 2019.

The MLA Handbook (MLA style) doesn’t cover words beginning with single letters, so MLA followers should adapt the general recommendations for headline-style capitalization to work with hyphenated compounds.

Hyphenated Articles, Prepositions, and Coordinating Conjunctions

7. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.161.

MLA Handbook, 8th ed. (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2016), 67–68.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), 6.17.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: AP style, APA style, Chicago style, formatting, MLA style

Home » How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and Headings
Freelance copy editor and writer Erin Wright

Meet the Editor

Hello! My name is Erin. I am a professional freelance copy editor specializing in business, research, and technical content.

Visit my Hire Me page to learn how I can make your writing shine!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Blog Posts

How to Stop Microsoft Word from Calling You “Author” in Track Changes

How to Cite a Podcast in Reference Lists, Notes, and Bibliographies

How to Create a Nonbreaking Dash in Microsoft Word

How to Write Table Titles

How to Insert Figure Captions and Table Titles in Microsoft Word

Tags

Acrobat Pro Acrobat Standard Adobe Acrobat Reader AMA style APA style AP style blogging book review business editing business writing capitalization Chicago style copyediting dictionaries editing tips formatting grammar marketing MLA style proofreading punctuation readability spelling structure style guides substantive editing Track Changes Turabian style usability usage Word 365 Word 2010 Word 2013 Word 2016 Word 2019 writing resources writing tips

Footer

  • Home
  • Writing Tips
  • Editing Tips
  • Microsoft Word Tutorials
  • Adobe Acrobat Tutorials
  • YouTube Videos
  • Hire Me
  • About Me
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • Resources
  • FAQs
  • Contact
Editorial Freelancers Association Logo American Copy Editors Society
Email: erin@erinwrightwriting.com
Phone: 708-669-9503

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

© Erin Wright, 2012–2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this website’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Erin Wright with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.