Evergrowing, Ever growing, or Ever-growing?

When writing about something that’s “ever-growing,” it would help to know whether it is a hyphenated form. Some people might split it into one or two words, and this article will explain what the correct form should be.

Ever growing vs. Ever-growing vs. Evergrowing

The only correct form we can use is “ever-growing.” It’s appropriate to keep the two words hyphenated whether we write them as nouns or adjectives. In both cases, we treat it as a compound word, which helps us to establish a meaning related to “ever” and “growing.”

According to Google Ngram Viewer, “ever-growing” is the most popular variation. It shows that it’s the only one that is correct for most native speakers. “Ever growing” sees a bit of usage, but this is not correct.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of “ever-growing,” it cannot be easily defined by dictionaries. We can find entries for “ever” and “growing” separately in The Cambridge Dictionary and The Oxford Dictionary, but that’s all there is to see.

However, due to there being two separate definitions, it would make sense that the compound noun form should be hyphenated. This will help us to establish a more specific definition related to “ever-growing” rather than keeping them separated.

Is “Evergrowing” One Word?

We cannot remove the hyphen from “ever-growing.” Therefore, “evergrowing” is not grammatically correct. We have to establish that “ever” and “growing” are different words, which is why it’s important to include the hyphen as part of the full spelling. The one-word option is not correct.

Here are some examples that should clear things up for you:

• Correct: These issues are ever-growing! Do you have any idea how we might be able to fix them?
• Incorrect: I don’t want to have to face the evergrowing climate challenges any more!
• Correct: The ever-growing problems are making it much harder for me to cope.
• Incorrect: Should we talk about the evergrowing elephant in the room?

Is “Ever growing” Two Words?

We should not write “ever growing” as two words. If we want it to be an adjective, we have to hyphenate it if we want to stay in line with common English rules. If we write it as a noun, the hyphen helps us to establish the meaning.

Perhaps you’d benefit from checking out these corrected examples?

• Correct: These issues are ever-growing! I can’t find a way to fix them!
• Incorrect: I don’t want to draw attention to the ever growing difficulties, but something must be done.
• Correct: These problems are ever-growing, and they will never go away now that we’ve left them too late.
• Incorrect: How can you ignore all of these things that seem to be ever growing?

Is “Ever-growing” Hyphenated?

“Ever-growing” is only correct when it is hyphenated. We must use it in this form when we are looking to use it correctly. When we use it like this, it is both a noun and an adjective, meaning that we do not have to worry about any of the other spelling variations.

We can refer to the AP Stylebook when we want to learn more about hyphenating adjectives. In AP Style, we treat hyphens as connectors between common words that modify the same noun.

Therefore, since “ever” and “growing” can modify the noun that comes after it, a hyphen is appropriate when we want to be grammatically correct with it.

Here are a few examples to help you with it:

1. The ever-growing problems that plague our times are getting much harder to handle.
2. There are many ever-growing issues here, and we must make sure we are ready for them.
3. I don’t think you can explain the ever-growing difficulties that we are facing.
4. I have a few ever-growing plants that never seem to stop. At least, not until they die!

Is “Growing” Capitalized In The Word “Ever-Growing”?

“Ever-growing” does not need to be capitalized in our writing. Since it is not a proper noun, there is no real reason to capitalize either part of the hyphen.

However, you might find it useful to capitalize the word when it is part of a title. If you capitalize every other word in your title, it will make it look much better to write “Ever-Growing” instead of “Ever-growing.”