When dealing with compound modifiers, heed this advice from The Associated Press Stylebook: "Do not use a hyphen between adverbs ending in '-ly' and adjectives they modify." For example, no hyphens ...
Q. I know hyphens are not necessary with words ending in “-ly,” such as “a highly respected individual.” What’s the rule for superlatives, as in “The investor chose the top 10 highest yielding stocks ...
You learned about the parts of speech in grade school. Dog is a noun. Play is a verb. Quick is an adjective. Adverbs end in ly. Now that you’re grown up, you can handle the unvarnished truth: Language ...