7. Compound words: pass + word = password

Grow your vocabulary ?

Another way to grow your vocabulary is to notice compound words. A compound word is made up of two or more words to make a new word with a new meaning. 

Have you noticed these compound words from the reading: 

• password

• cell phone

• login

• networks

• updates

• cyber threat

Source

Here are some more examples of different kinds of compound words: 

compound adjectives:

blue + collar = blue-collar 

• (adj.) connected with people who do physical work in industry 

• More blue-collar workers have been laid off than white-collar workers. 

compound verbs: 

lip + read = to lipread

• (v) to understand what somebody is saying by watching the way their lips move 

• I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could lipread. 

compound nouns: 

cyber + threat = cyber threat

• (n) the danger that someone will illegally see or use the information on a computer system 
• The hospital received a cyber threat so we all had to change our passwords. 

 source; source; source

Did you notice that some compound words are spelled with a hyphen (blue-collar) or as one word (lipread) or as two words (cyber threat)?

There aren’t any rules about this. If you’re not sure, just look it up in a dictionary.