"well-being" or "wellbeing"?

Question

Is the correct spelling and hyphenation "well-being" or "wellbeing"?

95% of the literature seems to suggest the first is correct. However, I've seen a few British and Australian academic papers that use the latter.
Which is correct and more importantly, why?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Is the correct spelling and hyphenation "well-being" or "wellbeing"? 95% of the literature seems to suggest the first is correct. However, I've seen a few British and Australian academic papers that use the latter. Which is correct and more importantly, why?[/nq]
Assuming you've seen enough uses of the unhyphenated form that it can't be dismissed as an aberration, both are correct, because both are in use. Spelling is conventional. "Spelled" and "spelt" (grain aside) are the same word with two different spellings, both correct. Same for "honor" and "honour."
Sometimes the convention varies from place to place, as is true of my examples. In such a case, use the form used by the people you are writing for. If that won't work, use the one that feels better to you.
In general, the tendency in English is to start with two words (base ball), hyphenate them (base-ball), and eventually join them without hyphen (baseball). That seems to be what's happening with "well(-)being."

Bob Lieblich
Alright?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Is the correct spelling and hyphenation "well-being" or "wellbeing"? 95% of the literature seems to suggest the first is correct. However, I've seen a few British and Australian academic papers that use the latter. Which is correct and more importantly, why?[/nq]
As you may have noticed, solid words are gaining ground over discrete or hyphenated ones. Thus, "being on line" is nowadays generally rendered as "being online".
CW

"well-being" or "wellbeing"?

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