Compound words are made up of two whole words that function as a single unit of meaning, and that the two words give clues to the meaning of the compound word.
There are three different types of compound words:
- Closed form: Two words are joined together to create a new meaning (firefly, softball, redhead, keyboard, makeup, notebook).
- Hyphenated form: Words are joined together by a hyphen (daughter-in-law, over-the-counter, six-year-old).
- Open form: Words are open but when read together, a new meaning is formed (post office, real estate, full moon).
Personally, I prefer the closed form for woodworking terms, like cabinetmaker, bandsaw and slipstone. The problem arises when your spell check doesn't recognize a woodworking compound and signals a misspelling. But any of the three forms are correct, so choose which you like best and add it to your spell check dictionary.
