How do I get LaTeX to hyphenate a word that contains a dash?

user_117814 0
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In a LaTeX document I'm writing, I get an overfull hbox warning because of the word "multi-disciplinary", which happens to be rendered at the end of a line.

I can get rid of this particular warning by changing it into multi-discipli\-nary, but the same problem will happen elsewhere, since this word is used a lot in the paper.

I'd like to use the \hyphenation{} command instead, but obviously my tentative \hyphenation{multi-disci-pli-na-ry} does not work, because it does not understand the first dash correctly.

What incantation do I need to get correct indentation in a word that already contains a dash?

Bonus question: Where could I have found the answer to that question myself?

hyphenation latex
9 Answers

From https://texfaq.org/FAQ-nohyph:

TeX won’t hyphenate a word that’s already been hyphenated. For example, the (caricature) English surname Smyth-Postlethwaite wouldn’t hyphenate, which could be troublesome. This is correct English typesetting style (it may not be correct for other languages), but if needs must, you can replace the hyphen in the name with a \hyph command, defined

 \def\hyph{-\penalty0\hskip0pt\relax}

This is not the sort of thing this FAQ would ordinarily recommend… The hyphenat package defines a bundle of such commands (for introducing hyphenation points at various punctuation characters).

Or you could \newcommand a command that expands to multi-discipli\-nary (use Search + Replace All to replace existing words).

user_2246710

I use package hyphenat and then write compound words like Finnish word Internet-yhteys (Eng. Internet connection) as Internet\hyp yhteys. Looks goofy but seems to be the most elegant way I've found.

user_5147230

Since Latex thinks multi-disciplinary is a single word with preferred hyphenation, you can indicate that these are two separate words,e.g.: multi-\hspace{0pt}disciplinary is sufficient to resolve this.

user_183254180

I answered something similar here: LaTeX breaking up too many words

I said:

you should set a hyphenation penalty somewhere in your preamble:

\hyphenpenalty=750

The value of 750 suited my needs for a two column layout on letter paper (8.5x11 in) with a 12 pt font. Adjust the value to suit your needs. The higher the number, the less hyphenation will occur. You may also want to have a look at the hyphenatpackage, it provides a bit more than just hyphenation penalty

user_1364070
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