Hyphen (Swe: Bindestreck; Sweng: Binding stroke) To form one-time-only compounds and special coinages: an I-don’t-care-what-you-think-of-me type the beep-beep-beep of the horns a motorcycle’s pb-pb-b-b-b! (The Holt Guide to English) the hmm-brru(p) of the humming machine gun the f(e)h-oww of the snow shoveling elephant (WHAMMO, Öyvind Fahlström)