Hyphen separated words standard. I know that we need to join two words when the resultant compound word to act as an adjective for the next coming noun. But some words like: ever-changing or everchanging, hand wash or handwash or handwash, decision maker or decision-maker etc. And the worst thing is even online available dictionaries are not consistent in this regard. My question is to take IELTS test what way should I adapt to know the right spelling or what rule should I follow.