Words that hyphenate differently

29 July 2026

There are various words in British English that have different hyphenations depending on their meanings and pronunciations. The following is a list of those I have come across. The source for these is the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary (hereafter NOSD),¹ which is the authority for word divisions in British English and is used by Oxford University Press.

• annexes (verb) / an‑nexes (plural noun).
  (In British English, the singular noun is an‑nexe, which does not match the first person singular simple present annex.)
• at‑trib‑ute (verb) / at‑tri‑bute (noun);
  at‑trib‑utes (verb) / at‑tri‑butes (noun).
• cur‑ric‑ulum vitae / school cur‑ricu‑lum.
• des‑ert (arid region, abandon) / de‑sert (comeuppance);
  des‑erts (arid regions, abandons) / de‑serts (comeuppances).
  (NOSD only gives de‑serts, presumably because the singular is rare while the plural occurs in ‘just deserts’.)
• mi‑nute (tiny) / min‑ute (60 sec‑onds, note, make such a note).
• pre‑sent (verb) / pres‑ent (noun);
  pre‑sents (verb) / pres‑ents (noun).
• pro‑duce (verb) / prod‑uce (noun).
• re‑cord (verb) / rec‑ord (noun);
  re‑cords (verb) / rec‑ords (noun).
• re‑bels (verb) / reb‑els (plural noun).
  (NOSD prescribes no hyphenation of words with fewer than six letters; otherwise re‑bel (verb) / reb‑el (noun) would be present here.)
• rec‑ol‑lect (remember) / re‑col‑lect (collect again; compose self);
  rec‑ol‑lects (remembers) / re‑col‑lects (collects again; composes self).
• re‑fuse (do not consent) / ref‑use (rubbish).
• se‑cond (transfer) / sec‑ond (1/60 of a min‑ute, next after 1st);
  se‑conds (transfers) / sec‑onds (n/60 of a min‑ute, additions after 1st).

The pair re‑present (present again) / rep‑re‑sent (act for) perhaps does not count, since NOSD says that re‑present always takes a hyphen to avoid ambiguity.

Changes in stress but not in hyphenation

There are various verb/noun pairs where the stress changes but the hyphenation does not: ab‑stract, ac‑cent, ad‑dress, ally, com‑bat, com‑pound, con‑cern, con‑duct, con‑flict, con‑script, con‑sort, con‑tract, con‑trast, con‑verse, con‑vert, con‑vict, de‑crease, de‑tail, dis‑charge, es‑cort, ex‑ploit, ex‑tract, fi‑nance, frag‑ment, im‑pact, im‑print, in‑crease, in‑sert, in‑sult, man‑date, ob‑ject, per‑mit, per‑vert, pro‑cess, pro‑gress, pro‑ject, pro‑test, ram‑page, recap, re‑call, re‑fill, re‑fund, re‑ject, re‑play, sub‑ject, sur‑vey, sus‑pect, tor‑ment, trans‑fer, trans‑plant, trans‑port, upset.

There are similar verb/adjective pairs: fre‑quent, per‑fect.

And adjective/noun pairs: au‑gust (venerable) /Au‑gust (month), in‑valid.

The pair en‑velop (verb) / en‑vel‑ope (noun) should perhaps be mentioned as a near-miss.

Notes