Homemade as one word is the correct spelling to indicate something was made at home. E.g., “I love homemade pizza.” Writing home made as two words is incorrect. However, you can write it with a hyphen if the noun comes directly afterward. E.g., “Home-made pasta is the best.”
The word homemade appears in the Cambridge Dictionary as one word with no hyphen. However, it also lists home-made with a hyphen as an alternative spelling form.
The Google Ngram shows that at one point, using a hyphen was more common, but that over time the one-word alternative has prevailed in the UK and the US.
The grammar rules state that the hyphenated version is a compound adjective and, therefore, always goes directly before the noun it modifies.
- We should take home-made biscuits to the office party.
- She gifted me a home-made candle for my birthday.
- I was amazed by the taste of the home-made chocolate truffles.
- He always brings home-made sandwiches for lunch.
In addition, if the noun appears before the term, you should write it as one word.
- The tomato sauce was homemade by her mother.
- The best pies are homemade and filled with love.
- My favorite memories from childhood are the homemade cookies during the holidays.
- That quilt looks gorgeous; it must be homemade.
You should follow this rule for AP Style. However, in other pieces of writing, you can use homemade throughout, and it is still correct.
Also, writing the term home made as two separate words for this context is incorrect, and you should not write the term this way.
You should continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about using the different versions of homemade in your writing.
Home Made
The term home made without a hyphen is incorrect. Hence, you should not write the term as two words when referring to someone producing something at home.
Instead, you can write the term as one word.
Here are some examples where this is the case:
- Correct: My favorite meal is homemade pasta.
- Incorrect: My favorite meal is home made pasta.
- Correct: All the desserts at the party, which were homemade, disappeared quickly.
- Incorrect: All the desserts at the party, which were home made, disappeared quickly.
- Correct: You can tell it’s homemade, judging by the rich flavor of the sauce.
- Incorrect: You can tell it’s home made, judging by the rich flavor of the sauce.
Furthermore, if the thing you describe comes directly after homemade, you can use the compound word home-made.
Have a look through these example sentences:
- Correct: I want to cook home-made pizza.
- Incorrect: I want to cook home made pizza.
- Correct: The best part of the picnic was the home-made apple pie.
- Incorrect: The best part of the picnic was the home made apple pie.
- Correct: I love sipping on home-made lemonade during hot summers.
- Incorrect: I love sipping on home made lemonade during hot summers.
You should follow the above rule if you are writing in AP Style. However, if not, you can choose to always use homemade as long as you are consistent throughout the text.
Homemade
The term homemade is the correct spelling to refer to something made at home. Moreover, it is the most common spelling in the UK and in the US.
Here are two sentences that show homemade with the noun it describes appearing before and after.
- I am entering a competition for homemade cakes.
- The cakes in the competition were all homemade.
Although for AP Style, you should hyphenate home-made when the noun appears directly after it. For most other intents and purposes, you can use the one-word version in all situations.
Here are some more example sentences using homemade as one word:
- The best part of the holiday dinner was her homemade stuffing.
- I love the smell of homemade cookies wafting through the house.
- For the festival, we’re planning on selling jewelry that are homemade.
- There’s a special touch to cards that are homemade.
Home-Made
Home-made as two words with a hyphen is a compound word that was initially more popular than the one-word alternative.
However, although home-made is correct nowadays, most people drop the hyphen and just use homemade as one word.
However, if you are writing in AP Style, you should use home-made when it comes directly before the noun it describes and homemade when it doesn’t.
As shown in these examples:
- All products in the store are home made.
- We only sell home-made products.
- She served us some delicious home-made ice cream.
- The market is known for its fresh, home-made bread.
- The pie is home-made by my grandmother.
- Those crafts, all home-made, added a personal touch to the event.
To sum up, the choice between using home-made and homemade is all your choice. That is unless you follow a specific style guide.