A compound word is made when two or more words are joined (with or without a hyphen) to form a new word and subsequently, a new meaning. For example, there is one blackbird but there are many different black birds. Learning compound words, especially through word matching games, is fun for kids. Plus compound words help kids grasp language structure and increase their interest in words, especially prefixes, suffixes and word roots.In English, there are three forms of compound words: closed form (notebook), hyphenated form (mother-in-law), and open form (real estate).