连字号（- ～ hyphen）是西方字母语言使用的标点符号，主要用处是标志合成词如 ice-cream-flavored candy（冰淇淋味糖果）。中文一般用于翻译自外语的人名、地名。在中易宋体中该连字号（因没有「连字暨减号」（下详）“-”常用）被重载为全角字符。

在欧洲字母文本排版技术，连字号也用在排版工序，称为断字（英语：Hyphenation）。以下是在两端对齐排列方式里的断字比例：

We,       therefore,      the
representatives of the United
States of America...

The hyphen (‐) is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes (‒, –, —, ―), which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign (−), which is also longer in some contexts.