hyphen: a punctuation mark (-) used between parts of a compound word or between the syllables of a word when the word is divided at the end of a line of text
toxic shock: syndrome resulting from a serious acute (sometimes fatal) infection associated with the presence of staphylococcus; characterized by fever and diarrhea and nausea and diffuse erythema and shock; occurs especially in menstruating women using highly absorbent tampons