`hyphenate-character` CSS property

The hyphenate-character CSS property sets the character (or string) used at the end of a line before a hyphenation break.

Both automatic and soft hyphens are displayed according to the specified hyphenate-character value.

Try it

hyphenate-character: auto;

hyphenate-character: "=";

hyphenate-character: "—";

<section id="default-example">
  <p id="example-element">An extra­ordinarily long English word!</p>
</section>

#example-element {
  border: 2px dashed #999999;
  font-size: 1.5rem;
  text-align: left;
  width: 7rem;
  hyphens: auto;
}

Syntax

hyphenate-character: <string>;
hyphenate-character: auto;

The value either sets the string to use instead of a hyphen, or indicates that the user agent should select an appropriate string based on the current typographic conventions (default).

Values

<string>

The <string> to use at the end of the line before a hyphenation break. The user agent may truncate this value if too many characters are used.

auto

The user-agent selects an appropriate string based on the content language's typographic conventions. This is the default property value, and only needs to be explicitly set in order to override a different inherited value.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

hyphenate-character = 
  auto |
  <string>

Examples

This example shows two identical blocks of text that have hyphens set to ensure that they break wherever needed, and on soft hyphen breaks (created using ­). The first block has the value of the hyphen changed to the equals symbol (=). The second block has no hyphenate-character set, which is equivalent to hyphenate-character: auto for user agents that support this property.

HTML

<dl>
  <dt><code>hyphenate-character: "="</code></dt>
  <dd id="string" lang="en">Superc&shy;alifragilisticexpialidocious</dd>
  <dt><code>hyphenate-character is not set</code></dt>
  <dd lang="en">Superc&shy;alifragilisticexpialidocious</dd>
</dl>

CSS

dd {
  width: 90px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  hyphens: auto;
}

dd#string {
  -webkit-hyphenate-character: "=";
  hyphenate-character: "=";
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Related CSS properties: hyphens, overflow-wrap.