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Hyphenate multiple modifiers to a single noun, or not?

English Language & Usage Asked on April 24, 2021

Should I hyphenate the phrase “pedestrian detection algorithm” in the example sentence below? The algorithm is designed to detect pedestrians. However, I am worried that it could be misread as a pedestrian “detection algorithm”, whereby the phrase “detection algorithm” is being modified by the adjective “pedestrian”.

The pedestrian detection algorithm detects the humans in the ROI using two-step (LBP-AdaBoost and HOG-SVM) classifiers.

2 Answers

Yes, you should. There is no real risk of introducing confusion or annoyance in the reader by including it, and some significant risk of leaving confusion if you leave it out. "Pedestrian-detection" sounds and reads smoothly enough.

I don't have Chicago Manual of Style on hand, but an answer to a more general question suggests that 6.39 applies, which would recommend hyphenation here.

Answered by Nathan Tuggy on April 24, 2021

Just hyphenate it normally. "pedestrian-detection algorithm" since pedestrian-detection is the name of the algorithm.

Answered by Kyle Emmanuel on April 24, 2021

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