A compound word is composed of two or more words that when combined have a different single meaning.

For example, gold and fish are words with different meanings. When combined as goldfish, they form a completely new word that includes the meanings of the two original words.

In this example, the first word (gold) modifies and describes the second word which identifies the original object (fish).

In the example below, the compound word is made up of two nouns. The first word (tooth) modifies and describes the second word (brush), telling us what its purpose is. 

Most compound words combine two nouns or an adjective and a noun, but they can also be formed by combining other parts of speech:

✅ Noun-noun

Ex: Bathroom, daylight, butterfly.

✅ Adjective-noun

Ex: Hardware, real estate, superstar.

✅ Verb-noun

Ex: Treadmill, watchdog.

✅ Noun-verb

Ex: Breastfeed, fingerpaint, sidestep.

✅ Verb-verb

Ex: Up and leave, stir fry, kickstart.

✅ Adjective-verb 

Ex: Dry-cleaning, whitewash, blacklist.

✅ Preposition-verb

Ex: Underwear, downsize, overrate.

✅ Verb-preposition

Ex: Drop-out, fall-out, crossover, hookup.

✅ Preposition-noun

Ex: Overweight, underslept, upkeep, workout.

Let's practice!

Look at the images below and figure out what the resulting compound word is.

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