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

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

hyphenate-character

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.

Syntax

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).

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

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

Initial value	auto
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

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

Specification
CSS Text Module Level 4 # propdef-hyphenate-character

See also

Related CSS properties: hyphens, overflow-wrap. Select your preferred language English (US)日本語 Change language