Conceptual gray zones are distinctive phenomena with their own hyphenated terminology.

Evidence

The gray zone is important enough to merit its own extended discussion in chapter 7. The key overall guideline here is to think explicitly about the gray zone. Often the gray zone is an interesting, distinctive phenomenon in its own right. Often it has distinctive terminological issues, notably a tendency to involve hyphenated names, such as competitive–authoritarian for democracy. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 437

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names and explains the ‘gray zone’ concept and its terminological signature (hyphenated labels like competitive-authoritarian).
• SEED: Angle: hyphenated political labels — ‘competitive-authoritarian,’ ‘illiberal democracy’ — as linguistic markers of zones we can’t classify.