A compound word is made up of two words that, when apart, mean something different than when they are put together, as in “pickup”.

The compound word may be very closely related to the words of which it is made, but still have its own meaning.

For example with “pickup”, “pick” means “to select or collect” and “up” is a direction; however, the compound word “pickup” is “a type of truck”.

When working with compound words, first divide between the two words and then decode or encode each word separately.