Quote:
Originally Posted by poli
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I did, but my source doesn't give the same answer as yours (I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers).
Over time, word spellings evolve, especially for parts of speech that are derived from phrasal verbs, like 'grow up'.
You'll find the noun spelled three different ways in reliable American English dictionaries (grown-up, grown up, and grownup).
The dictionary I use the most always lands on the 'grownup' entry for the noun, no matter what spelling you use as the search term. It clearly distinguishes the noun (with no hyphen) and the adjective (with a hyphen).
The British English dictionary page you referenced says that the noun 'grown-up' is also spelled 'grownup'. Your reference also gives American English spellings of the noun as 'grown-up' and 'grown up'.
I found another source that states that the noun is spelled as two words.
All three spellings are valid, since all can be found in reliable dictionaries. The one I use all the time is 'grownup'. I also use the noun 'email', but it wasn't so long ago that it had to contain a hyphen.