The resign vs re-sign mix-up is one of those errors that can cause real problems. Write "resigned" when you meant "re-signed" in a workplace email, and readers will reach a completely wrong conclusion about whether someone quit their job or stayed in it. The words look nearly identical. A single hyphen separates them. But they carry opposite meanings.
What "resign" means
Resign (no hyphen) means to voluntarily give up a position, role, or responsibility. It's the word you use when someone quits a job, steps down from a committee, or formally withdraws from an office. The verb comes from the Latin resignare, meaning to cancel or give back.
You use it like this:
- "She resigned from the board after three years."
- "He resigned his position as director on Friday."
- "The coach resigned at the end of the season."
There's a second, older meaning: to resign yourself to something means to accept an unpleasant situation without fighting it. "He resigned himself to the delay." This sense comes from the same Latin root and it's still common in formal writing, though the "quitting a job" sense is far more frequent today.
What "re-sign" means
Re-sign (with a hyphen) means to sign again. In practice, it usually refers to renewing a contract: a player re-signs with a team, a client re-signs an agreement, an employee re-signs an updated contract. The prefix re- simply means again, so re-sign is literally "to sign once more."
You use it like this:
- "The club re-signed their star striker for two more seasons."
- "She re-signed her lease for another year."
- "The publisher re-signed the author to a three-book deal."
The hyphen isn't optional. Without it, "resigned" already means something else. "Resigned" communicates quitting or passive acceptance. "Re-signed" communicates renewal. The hyphen does real work here.
Why the confusion happens
The two words are separated by a single character, and in informal writing people often skip hyphens entirely. "He re-signed" becomes "he resigned" with one keystroke missing, and the sentence now says the opposite of what was intended. Sports journalism and employment reporting are where this error shows up most often, because both fields talk about contract renewals constantly.
Spellcheckers don't flag the problem either. "Resigned" is a perfectly valid word, so autocorrect has no reason to question it. The error slips through entirely on grammar tools. This makes it the kind of mistake similar to the "invested interest" vs "vested interest" confusion, where the wrong word is still a real word, and only the context can reveal the mistake.
How to get it right every time
A quick test: ask whether the meaning involves signing something again. If yes, you need re-sign with a hyphen. If the meaning involves leaving or quitting, resign without a hyphen is correct.
Another approach: read the sentence aloud and ask whether the result makes logical sense. "The company resigned their top salesperson" sounds strange. Top performers don't usually get quit at by their employers. What actually happened is that the company re-signed them, renewing the contract. That oddness is your clue that the hyphen is missing.
Precision with hyphens matters more broadly than most writers expect. Compare snuck vs sneaked, another pair where the "wrong" choice is a real English word that passes spellcheck easily. The difference often comes down to careful reading, not automated tools.
Quick reference
Here's the short version:
- Resign (no hyphen): to quit, step down, or accept something unwillingly.
- Re-sign (with hyphen): to sign again, typically renewing a contract or agreement.
If you're writing about someone keeping their job, keeping a lease, or staying with a team: use the hyphen. If you're writing about departure: drop it. When in doubt, the hyphen is the rarer and more precise choice, so ask whether it fits before leaving it out.