Hyphenation

Hyphenating for Clarity

Note the difference between the following:

Infectious disease expert: A disease expert who is infectious

Infectious-disease expert: An expert on infectious diseases

Adult film star: an adult who is a film star

Adult-film star: a person who stars in adult films

Homeless outreach worker: an outreach worker who is homeless

Homeless-outreach worker: an outreach worker whose target population is the homeless

Suspicious activity report: An activity report that is suspicious

Suspicious-activity report: a report of suspicious activity

See Also:

• Adjectival Compounds

• Hyphenated Adjectives, Adverbs, and Nouns

• Non-Hyphenated Adjectives, Adverbs, and Nouns

• Compounds Formed with Specific Terms