Which is correct: long-term or long term?
Writing for Business
Since a candidate relationship management system is flexible, there are better tools for _________ communication and a lot of ways to segment candidates.
A. long-term
B. long term
Answer: A
While both terms exist, the difference between them (the use of the hyphen) is very important and applies to many other grammatical forms.
When talking about the ‘long term’, we are talking about the noun ‘term’ which is described by the adjective ‘long’.
Example: We are planning for the long term.
However, when the entire phrase is used to describe something else, a hyphen is used to show this. It’s called a compound adjective.
Example: This is a long-term plan.
