no-hitter/
Certain words and phrases tend to evolve from separation to linkage. The trend in English is for frequently used word combinations to "grow together" from two words to one, sometimes passing through a hyphenated stage. The two-word phrase data base, for example, is now most commonly written as one word: database. (It apparently skipped the hyphenated transition phase.)
The hyphen is needed, for instance, to distinguish re-sign from resign or re-creation from recreation. It helps to differentiate a dirty-movie theater from a dirty movie-theater.
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