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Here's quite a good general answer of when and how to hyphenate. This makes me believe, that Turing-complete is correct, even though most people are not writing it this way.

However, Turing-completeness seems to me to be an extension of Turing-complete—Turing-complete + ness. It's not the completeness of Mr. Turing.

Do I need to get my understanding supplemented here? How?

EDIT:

The answers to To hyphenate or not? don't answer this question.

Is the hyphen in Turing-completeness considered wrong, or not exactly wrong but totally unnecessary? It's hard to put into words, but this compound word has a flair that distinguishes it from a mere compound word that combines two nouns, and I feel urged to express this with a hyphen, just like in the compound word Turing-complete.

h-h
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  • I always hyphenate Turing-complete and its derivations, and the only place I've ever seen them not hyphenated has been in contexts where the author clearly didn't understand the concept. – Jeff Zeitlin May 11 '18 at 11:26
  • That question does not address two-component strings. The normal 'rules' are not to hyphenate compound adjectives used predicatively ('This system is Turing complete') but to hyphenate especially unfamiliar compound adjectives used attributively (a Turing-complete system). – Edwin Ashworth May 11 '18 at 11:31
  • Do it the way mot people do it in your community. In math, it's usually without a hyphen. – Mitch May 11 '18 at 13:47
  • << 6.39: When a temporary [/novel] compound is used as an adjective before a noun, it is often hyphenated to avoid misleading the reader. (e.g. "a fast sailing ship": is it a "ship that is sailing fast", in which case you should hyphenate it, or "a sailing ship that is fast", in which case you should leave it unhyphenated.)

    6.40: Where the compound adjective follows the noun it modifies, there is usually little to no risk of ambiguity or hesitation, and the hyphen may be safely omitted. [There are, of course, exceptions to this, as in "her reply was thought-provoking."] ...

     – Edwin Ashworth May 11 '18 at 13:59
  • 6.41: [contrary to its earlier positions,] The University of Chicago Press now takes the position that the hyphen may be omitted in all cases where there is little or no risk of ambiguity or hesitation. >> seems clear enough for the general guidelines. As for this specific case, the overriding rule would seem to be you can choose. – Edwin Ashworth May 11 '18 at 14:00
  • @EdwinAshworth — What has the laziness of the University of Chcago Press got to do with this? – David May 13 '18 at 20:27
  • @David You are accusing the 'University of Chcago Press' of being lazy? At least they spell-check. And other style guides offer this advice. People who insist that there are 'rules' in this area are hyperprescriptive. – Edwin Ashworth May 13 '18 at 23:45
  • @EdwinAshworth — I must admit I do not know about UofC Press, but my personal experience of other academic publishers is that they are taking the easy way out to save money on sub-editing and to allow the work to be done in the Far East by people without the prerequisite knowledge of English or typography. The last paper I had to correct proofs for while I was away in Australia was a complete and utter nightmare in this respect. Just bitching, I suppose. – David May 14 '18 at 08:42
  • @David Compiling a style guide (which takes commonly accepted practice into account) is totally different from proofreading. // Wikipedia claims that there is a lack of consensus here: 'Major style guides advise consulting a dictionary to determine whether a compound adjective should be hyphenated ... According to some guides, hyphens are unnecessary in familiar compounds used as adjectives "where no ambiguity could result",[5] while other guides suggest using hyphens "generally" in such compounds used as adjectives before nouns.[6]' – Edwin Ashworth May 14 '18 at 09:20
  • It's at least good to know that there are different schools of hyphenation and Jeff Zeitlin "always hyphenate[s] Turing-complete and its derivations." – h-h May 14 '18 at 13:27

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