Homemade, Home made, or Home-made? (Helpful Examples)

Everyone likes a good “homemade” item. But it might help to know whether it’s written as one or two words. The hyphenated form is sometimes present in writing, and we will explain all the differences you need to understand.

Home made vs. Home-made vs. Homemade

“Homemade” is the best choice when you are writing about things that someone made at home. We can also use “home-made” as a hyphenated form, but it only works when a noun comes directly after it. “Home made” should never be written as two words.

According to Google Ngram Viewer, “homemade” is by far the most popular choice. We should use the results from this graph to teach us that the one-word variation is the best option of the three.

“Home-made” has some usage as well, which shows that there’s nothing wrong with it. However, it’s still best to try and remember that “homemade” is more popular in all cases.

The Cambridge Dictionary and The Oxford Dictionary provide entries for both “homemade” and “home-made.” They show us that the two forms are variations in spelling.

The Cambridge Dictionary makes it clear that “home-made” should only apply when a noun comes directly after it. The Oxford Dictionary does not state this but provides examples to show us how it works in this manner.

Is “Homemade” One Word?

“Homemade” is written most commonly as one word. We can remove the hyphen from the grouped word because it does not change the overall meaning of the phrase. It’s a good way to simplify language without losing any specific meaning.

Perhaps you’d like to check these examples out to give you a hand with it:

1. I didn’t want any of their homemade bread because I wanted to get home quicker.
2. Homemade is the best kind of stuff! That’s why I love coming to this shop.
3. If it’s not homemade, I really don’t want it! It’s not worth my time or my money.
4. This is all homemade, which is why I’m so proud to sell it all to you for such a reasonable price!

Is “Home made” Two Words?

“Home made” is not correct as two words. It is an adjective form. Whenever two or more words are used as an adjective form, a clear connection must be made between them. Therefore, avoiding the hyphen or grouped variation is incorrect.

These examples should clear up any issues you might be having with it:

• Correct: I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to get any of the homemade stuff ready for you.
• Incorrect: It’s not home made, even though they sold it to me as such! I’ll complain about this!
• Correct: You said this was homemade, but I found the packaging in the trash!
• Incorrect: You should get into home made bread, but I have no idea how to help you start baking it.

Is “Home-made” Hyphenated?

“Home-made” is correct when hyphenated, but it’s much less common today. It was the original way to spell the adjective form, but the evolution of the language has allowed us to drop the hyphen in favor of simplicity in our writing.

Nevertheless, AP Stylebook guidelines give us great help with hyphens. Hyphens are linkers, and they are used whenever two or more words modify the same noun in a sentence.

AP Style works when using “Home-made,” but only if a noun comes straight after the adjective form.

Here’s how you should use it to get it right:

1. Home-made bread is the best! I wish I could have more.
2. I have a home-made cake on the side over there. Do you want to try some of it?
3. It’s a home-made frame, but I think it will look really nice if you hang it up in your kitchen.
4. His home-made chair is something else! I didn’t think he had that level of craftsmanship in him!

Is “Made” Capitalized In The Word “Home-Made”?

“Home-made” is not a proper noun. We say this because it means we do not have to worry much about the capital letters in the hyphen form.

Capitalizing both words in the hyphenated form might be doable if you write it in a title. If you like to capitalize all words in your title, then it would make sense to capitalize both parts of “Home-Made.”