Learn English – Is “non-life-threatening” punctuated correctly with two hyphens

punctuation

The news reporter said, “The victim's injuries were non-life-threatening.” [Verbatim quote, so I cannot alter the wording to say "…were not life-threatening".]

Is non-life-threatening correctly punctuated with two hyphens as shown? Or should it be nonlife-threatening in this particular context?

Best Answer

The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual (PDF), in paragraph 6.32 (page 120 of the file, which displays a page number of 103), says “Use a hyphen or hyphens … to avoid ambiguity.”, and gives “non-tumor-bearing tissue” and “non-civil-service position” as examples of correct hyphen usage.  “non-life-threatening injuries” seems to be consistent with those examples.

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