All these three forms, high throughput, high-throughput or high through-put, are used in the scientific community by Google Scholar searching. Where is the hyphen should be? Is there a specific context for their using?
Thank you!
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Related question, How do hyphens modify the meaning of “n-month-old”? and When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?.– user140086Commented Feb 19, 2016 at 6:55
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@Rathony, thank you for your comment and the information.– pengchyCommented Feb 19, 2016 at 7:50
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1 Answer
I think the fact that you have a compound word (throughput) within the structure confuses things. I'll use another example to clarify the rule* then we go back to this
*it's not a "rule" strictly speaking, since - as you yourself realized through Google Scholar texts - there are many approaches.
Let's take the example sparkling white wall versus sparking-white wall
The hyphen is used when sparkling-white is used as an adjective for wall (in other words, we mean that the color/shade of the wall is not merely "white", but "sparkling white". Without the hyphen you would essentially have two adjectives, sparkling and white - i.e. "the wall is sparkling and the wall is white". It's subtle, I know.
On your example, it depends on whether you use the word as an adjective or noun. Here are two examples to demonstrate:
I have noticed a high throughput in the production line
vs
I have noticed a high-throughput result in the production line