long range gun !!

[ieasy]

I'm surprised to see in my dictionary the word: "long range gun"!
Shouldn't it be "long-range gun" ? long + range aren't adjectives linked together before a noun? Is the hyphen optional?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Ieasy

"Long range" in your example = ADJ + NOUN; together they form an adjectival phrase, and modify "gun".

You would indeed find the phrase hyphenated ("long-range gun") in many publications. However, there is a growing tendency to omit hyphens where no misunderstanding is possible. This is especially true of business English.

In your example, there is a good case for hyphenation, as some readers might well interpret a non-hyphenated version as "a long range-gun".

All the best,
MrP