Which is right: "drop-down" or "drop down"?

Question

What is the proper way to write this term when writing product documentation? Hyphenated or not?

drop down list

or

drop-down list?

Robusto · Accepted Answer

If it's just the compound adjective, use drop-down list.

Note, however, that there are classes of components in various frameworks that are called DropDown or DropDownList or various alternatives of the same thing. In such cases use the framework name as is.

Paul · Answer

In the dictionary it's drop-down: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drop-down

Also "drop-down" prevails on tech websites like apple.com or microsoft.com.

I think that this is the best indicator: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=drop-down%2C+drop+down&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=

ginah · Answer

In the Merriam Webster dictionary, it is drop-down, but it also shows dropdown. — 
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drop-down "drop-down or dropdown noun, plural drop-downs or dropdowns "

Which is right: "drop-down" or "drop down"?

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