Well, there is super-black light-absorbing material. And then there is super black-light-absorbing material. What a difference a couple of hyphens makes. --

Well, there is super-black light-absorbing material. And then there is super black-light-absorbing material. What a difference a couple of hyphens makes. -- Your Friendly Neighborhood Punctuation Person EDIT: Really, there are gobs of possible interpretations. The material could be super (wow, what a material!), black (its color), light (not heavy -- or maybe it's made of light?), and absorbing (soaks up water?). It could be super, black, and light-absorbing. It might absorb black light that is super. It might absorb light that is super-black. I count 11 possible interpretations in all. For the combinatorially minded out there, it does appear that the Catalan numbers are involved. But I don't get 14 (= C_4) because 3 of the interpretations don't parse; it doesn't work for "light-absorbing" to get a modifier (how could "light-absorbing" be "black" [whether or not the result is "super"], and how could "light-absorbing" be "super-black"?).