[語文誌]The state of the art

The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time.

The phrase "state of the art" should be hyphenated when it is used as an adjective, e.g.: "This machine is an example of state-of-the-art technology", but not when used as a noun, as in the sentence below.

"The state of the art in this field is mostly related to the X technology".