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Dictionary.com is showing cost-efficiency, but New York Times shows "cost efficiency."

Sentence would be: ... our track record for timeliness and cost-efficiency.

I feel like it should have no hyphen.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

Beetlebee
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1 Answers1

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Related: Hyphenating compound words

When you are producing a compound word like the adjective cost-efficient in "cost-efficient process" it is necessary to show that those two words form a single adjective.

However, cost efficiency is not the same: here efficiency is the noun and cost the adjective (attributive noun). Neither is a compound and it doesn't form one either.

Note that if you are using cost efficiency as a compound itself ("founded on cost-efficiency principles"), then it needs a hyphen to show it's a compound.

Community
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Andrew Leach
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