There is no consensus amongst clients and dictionaries — so the bottom line is consistency, consistency, consistency. Make a style sheet for each client or project and stick to it.

Question

Please, I need help understanding when to use decision-making and decision making. The Oxford Dictionary offers a range of example sentences, seemingly interchanging the use of the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions. I thought decision-making was used when it is a modifier and decision making when it is a noun, but I am doubting myself.

Answer 1

I think the rule is that compounds formed from a noun plus a gerund that function as nouns are not hyphenated. The tricky thing is that “not hyphenated” can mean either one word (shipbuilding) or two (power sharing). The OED sample sentences use all three options, but I’d stick with decision making.

Answer 2

My guide on this matter is always New Hart’s Rules, and at 3.3.3 Compound words it states: Compounds containing a noun or an adjective that is derived from a verb (glass-making, nation-builder) are more often hyphenated than non-verbal noun or adjective compounds (science fiction, wildfire). Furthermore, compound adjectives formed from an adjective and a verb participle should be hyphenated whether or not they precede the noun: good-looking.

So, by analogy, decision-maker and decision-making should then be hyphenated, as should be crowd-funding, role-playing, mine-laying, road-widening and their -er equivalents.

Answer 3

Hart’s 3.3.3 also has this:

“House styles vary greatly in their treatment of compound nouns and it is worth choosing a good dictionary such as the Oxford Dictionary of English or Oxford Dictionaries Online for guidance, but if a specific preference is not stated, it is as well to decide on your own choices for, e.g., decision maker/decision-making, and apply them consistently. Most styles seem to agree on policymaker but not on which to use out of policymaking, policy-making, or policy making for example. Much depends on the familiarity of the readership with a particular usage, for example the compound noun climate change would be unacceptable if hyphenated and jobseeker would jar as two words, at least in the UK, where Jobseeker’s Allowance is an accepted term.”

They are also known to transform over time, from open (two words) to hyphenated to closed (one word). In this instance, decision making, decision-making and decisionmaking all seem to be in the wind. The OED’s headword is decision-making, but it also offers alternative sample sentences:

By nature, strategic leadership requires consequential decision making.
Speed has become a defining quality of successful decisionmaking.

It also has “decision maker” as a headword – with every single example sentence using “decision-maker”! (But it is consistent on the closed form of policymaker/ing.)

I generally use OED headwords unless the client’s style guide prefers something else, but consistency is key. This is where I find PerfectIt and Paul Beverly’s Hyphenalyse macro particularly helpful.

Thanks to Sarah Taylor, JohnDavid Linnegar, Helen Douglas, Gudrun and Jordan for this content from the PEGforum Decision-making thread that started on Feb 26, 2026 at 1:15 PM.

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505 words

Published Apr 13, 2026