Should it be "mid 80s" or "mid-80s"?

Question

When discussing temperatures or decades, should it be hyphenated?
I understood that two-word adjectives need to be hyphenated, but why does MS Word think this should be, too?

D Krueger · Accepted Answer

Yes.

My American Heritage Dictionary has entries for the adjective 'mid' and the prefix 'mid-'.

Modifying the noun 80s with the adjective mid would be written as mid 80s.

But creating word by appending the noun 80s to the prefix mid would be written as mid-80s.

So, it depends on which form of mid you use.

Please note that if there is a standard dictionary for the project you are working on, you must ensure that there is an entry for the adjective mid, not just the prefix. If no such entry exists, you're stuck with the prefix mid, which means you're also stuck with the hyphen.

Neil Coffey · Answer

This is really a kind of corner case where there's probably no consensually accepted solution used and preferred by the majority of speakers.

Just either:

if you have no editor, use whichever you think looks clearest to read and don't worry about it too much;
if you have an editor, use whichever your editor tells you to use (or let them worry about it).

Mark Hurd · Answer

I would normally go for the non-hyphenated case.

NB "mid '80s" is more correct for decades because it is a contraction of "mid 1980s" (presumably).

Should it be "mid 80s" or "mid-80s"?

3 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question