Whitespace characters – spaces of equivalent sizes to dashes

Explanatory notes
a. In Cambria and many other typefaces, the length of the horizontal bar is equal to three quarters of
Dash
an em dash or one and a half times an en dash.
b. Other style differences (e.g., APA "p.m." and "pp." vs. AMA "PM" and "pp") are ignored for the The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is
purpose of this comparison.

—
similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher
from the baseline. The most common versions are the en dash – ,
generally longer than the hyphen but shorter than the minus sign; the
em dash — , longer than either the en dash or the minus sign; and the
horizontal bar ― , whose length varies across typefaces but tends to be
between those of the en and em dashes.[a]
Dash
History
In the early 17th century, in Okes-printed plays of William Shakespeare,
– — ― ‒
dashes are attested that indicate a thinking pause, interruption, mid- En Em Horizontal Figure
dash dash bar dash
speech realization, or change of subject.[1] The dashes are variously
longer ⸺ (as in King Lear reprinted 1619) or composed of hyphens -
-- (as in Othello printed 1622); moreover, the dashes are often, but not
always, prefixed by a comma, colon, or semicolon.[2][3][1][4]

In 1733, in Jonathan Swift's On Poetry, the terms break and dash are
attested for ⸺ and — marks:[5]

Blot out, correct, insert, refine,

Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when Invention fails;
To scratch your Head, and bite your Nails.

Your poem finish'd, next your Care

Is needful, to transcribe it fair.
In modern Wit all printed Trash, is
Set off with num'rous Breaks⸺and Dashes—
1622 Okes-print of Othello, p. 19 (ht
tps://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/c
ollection/p15878coll17/id/5783).
Types of dash Note use of dashes.

Usage varies both within English and within other languages, but the usual
conventions for the most common dashes in printed English text are these:

An (unspaced) em dash or a spaced en dash can be used to mark a break in a sentence, and a
pair can be used to set off a parenthetical statement. For example:

Glitter, felt, yarn, and buttons—his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded.
A flock of sparrows—some of them juveniles—alighted and sang.

Glitter, felt, yarn, and buttons – his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded.
A flock of sparrows – some of them juveniles – alighted and sang.
 An en dash, but not an em dash, indicates spans or differentiation, where it may replace "and", "to", Chinese character for "one", used in various
U+4E00 一 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-4E00
or "through".[6] For example: East Asian languages.
Looks like a sequence of a hyphen and a
U+A4FE ꓾ LISU PUNCTUATION COMMA
full stop (period).
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was fought in western Pennsylvania and along the present
PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL EM
US–Canada border U+FE31 ︱
DASH

— Edwards, pp. 81–101. U+FE32 ︲ PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL EN

DASH

An em dash or horizontal bar, but not an en dash, is used to set off the source of a direct quotation. U+FE58 ﹘ M﹘﹘﹘﹘﹘ SMALL EM DASH Compatibility characters used in East Asian
typography.
For example:
U+FE63 ﹣ M﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣ SMALL HYPHEN-MINUS

U+FF0D － M－－－－－ FULLWIDTH HYPHEN-MINUS

Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience,
knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship U+FF5E ～ M～～～～～ FULLWIDTH TILDE
without sacrifice.
U+10110 𐄐 AEGEAN NUMBER TEN

— Mahatma Gandhi
U+10191 𐆑 ROMAN UNCIA SIGN
A symbol for an ancient Roman unit of
length.
A horizontal bar (also called quotation dash)[7] or the em dash, but not the en dash, introduces
U+10EAD 𐺭 YEZIDI HYPHENATION MARK
quoted text.
In informal contexts, a hyphen-minus ( - ) is often used as a substitute for an en dash, as is a pair of U+1104B 𑁋 BRAHMI PUNCTUATION LINE
hyphen-minuses ( -- ) for an em dash, because the hyphen-minus symbol is readily available on
most keyboards.[8] The autocorrection facility of word-processing software often corrects these to U+11052 𑁒 BRAHMI NUMBER ONE
the typographically correct form of dash.
U+110BE 𑂾 KAITHI SECTION MARK

Figure dash U+1D360 𝍠 COUNTING ROD UNIT DIGIT ONE

The figure dash ‒ (U+2012 ‒ FIGURE DASH) has the same width as a numerical digit. (Most fonts have digits
of equal width.) It is used within numbers such as the phone number 555‒0199, especially in columns so as to
maintain alignment. In contrast, the en dash – (U+2013 – EN DASH) is generally used for a range of values.[9]
The minus sign − (U+2212 − MINUS SIGN) glyph is generally set a little higher, so as to be level with the
horizontal bar of the plus sign.
In other languages
In many languages, such as Polish, the em dash is used as an opening quotation mark. There is no matching
closing quotation mark; typically a new paragraph will be started, introduced by a dash, for each turn in the
dialogue.

In informal usage, the hyphen-minus - (U+002D - HYPHEN-MINUS), provided as standard on most keyboards, is Corpus studies indicate that em dashes are more commonly used in Russian than in English.[58] In Russian, the
often used instead of the figure dash. em dash is used for the present copula (meaning "am"/"is"/"are"), which is unpronounced in spoken Russian.

In TeX, the standard fonts have no figure dash; however, the digits normally all have the same width as the en In French, em or en dashes can be used as parentheses (brackets), but the use of a second dash as a closing
dash, so an en dash can be a substitution for the figure dash. In XeLaTeX, one can use \char"2012.[10] The parenthesis is optional. When a closing dash is not used, the sentence is ended with a period (full-stop) as usual.
Linux Libertine font also has the figure dash glyph. Dashes are, however, much less common than parentheses.

In Spanish, em dashes can be used to mark off parenthetical phrases. Unlike in English, the em dashes are spaced
En dash like brackets, i.e., there is a space between main sentence and dash, but not between parenthetical phrase and
dash.[59]
The en dash, en rule, or nut dash[11] – is traditionally half the width of an em dash.[12][13] In modern fonts, the
length of the en dash is not standardized, and the en dash is often more than half the width of the em dash.[14]
The widths of en and em dashes have also been specified as being equal to those of the upper-case letters N and Llevaba la fidelidad a su maestro —un buen profesor— hasta extremos insospechados.[60]
M, respectively,[15][16] and at other times to the widths of the lower-case letters.[14][17]

See also
Usage
Leiden Conventions – rules to indicate conditions in texts (usage of "[— — —]")
The three main uses of the en dash are Signature dashes – signature delimiter in emails (usage of "-- " in a single line)
 Usually is used together with superscripted 1. to connect symmetric items, such as the two ends of a range or two competitors or alternatives
U+207B ⁻ M⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻ SUPERSCRIPT MINUS
numbers. 2. to contrast values or illustrate a relationship between two things
Usually is used together with subscripted 3. to compound attributes, where one of the connected items is itself a compound
U+208B ₋ M₋₋₋₋₋ SUBSCRIPT MINUS
numbers.

An arithmetic operation used in

mathematics to represent subtraction or
negative numbers. Its glyph is consistent
with the glyph of the plus sign, and it is
U+2212 − M−−−−− MINUS SIGN centred on the zero digit, unlike the ASCII
hyphen-minus and U+2010 ‐ HYPHEN, that
(especially the latter) are designed to match
lowercase letters and are inconsistent with
arithmetic operators.
Used in mathematics. Ends not curved as
much regular tilde. In TeX and LaTeX, this
U+223C ∼ M∼∼∼∼∼ TILDE OPERATOR
character can be expressed using the math
mode command $\sim$.
Miscellaneous Technical (Unicode block).
U+23AF ⎯ M⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ HORIZONTAL LINE EXTENSION Can be used in sequences to generate long
connected horizontal lines.
Ranges of values
The en dash is commonly used to indicate a closed range of values – a range with clearly defined and finite upper
and lower boundaries – roughly signifying what might otherwise be communicated by the word "through" in
American English, or "to" in International English.[18] This may include ranges such as those between dates,
times, or numbers.[19][20][21][22] Various style guides restrict this range indication style to only parenthetical or
tabular matter, requiring "to" or "through" in running text. Preference for hyphen vs. en dash in ranges varies. For
example, the APA style (named after the American Psychological Association) uses an en dash in ranges, but the
AMA style (named after the American Medical Association) uses a hyphen:
En dash range style (e.g., Hyphen range style (e.g.,
Running text spell-out
APA[b]) AMA[b])
June–July 1967 June-July 1967 June and July 1967

Miscellaneous Technical (Unicode block). 1:15–2:15 p.m. 1:15-2:15 PM 1:15 to 2:15 p.m.
U+23E4 ⏤ M⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤ STRAIGHTNESS Represents line straightness in technical For ages 3–5 For ages 3-5 For ages 3 through 5
context.
pp. 38–55 pp 38-55 pages 38 through 55
Box-drawing characters. Several similar
U+2500 ─ M───── BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT HORIZONTAL characters from one Unicode block used to President Jimmy Carter (1977– President Jimmy Carter (1977- President Jimmy Carter, in office from 1977 to
draw horizontal lines. 81) 81) 1981
U+2796 ➖ M➖➖➖➖➖ HEAVY MINUS SIGN Unicode symbols.
Some style guides (including the Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) and the AMA
Ancient Greek textual symbol, usually Manual of Style) recommend that, when a number range might be misconstrued as subtraction, the word "to"
U+2E0F ⸏ PARAGRAPHOS
displayed by a long low line.
should be used instead of an en dash. For example, "a voltage of 50 V to 100 V" is preferable to using "a voltage
U+2E17 ⸗ DOUBLE OBLIQUE HYPHEN Used in ancient Near-Eastern linguistics. of 50–100 V". Relatedly, in ranges that include negative numbers, "to" is used to avoid ambiguity or
awkwardness (for example, "temperatures ranged from −18 °C to −34 °C"). It is also considered poor style (best
Used mostly in German dictionaries and
U+2E1A ⸚ HYPHEN WITH DIAERESIS indicates umlaut of the stem vowel of a avoided) to use the en dash in place of the words "to" or "and" in phrases that follow the forms from X to Y and
plural form. between X and Y.[20][21]
U+2E3A ⸺ TWO-EM DASH
Supplemental Punctuation. Relationships and connections
U+2E3B ⸻ THREE-EM DASH

Used in the transcription of old German The en dash is used to contrast values or illustrate a relationship between two things.[19][22] Examples of this
U+2E40 ⹀ DOUBLE HYPHEN
manuscripts. usage include:
U+2E5D ⹝ OBLIQUE HYPHEN Used in medieval European manuscripts.[57] Australia beat American Samoa 31–0.
U+30A0 ゠ KATAKANA-HIRAGANA DOUBLE HYPHEN Radical–Unionist coalition
Boston–Hartford route
U+3161 ㅡ HANGUL LETTER EU
Hangul letters used in Korean to denote the New York–London flight (however, it may be argued that New York–to-London flight is more
sound [ɯ].
U+1173 ᅳ HANGUL JUNGSEONG EU appropriate because New York is a single name composed of two valid words; with a single en
dash, the phrase is ambiguous and could mean either Flight from New York to London or New flight
Wavy lines found in some East Asian
from York to London; such ambiguity is assuaged when used mid-sentence, though, because of
character sets. Typographically, they have
U+301C 〜 M〜〜〜〜〜 WAVE DASH the capital N in "New" indicating it is a special noun). If dash–hyphen use becomes too unwieldy or
the width of one CJK character cell
(fullwidth form), and follow the direction of difficult to understand, the sentence can be rephrased for clarity and readability; for example, "The
the text, being horizontal for horizontal text, flight from New York to London was a pleasant experience".[22]
and vertical for columnar. They are used as
dashes, and occasionally as emphatic Mother–daughter relationship
U+3030 〰 M〰〰〰〰〰 WAVY DASH
variants of the katakana vowel extender The Supreme Court voted 5–4 to uphold the decision.
mark.

ー KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED Japanese chōonpu, used in Japanese to A distinction is often made between "simple" attributive compounds (written with a hyphen) and other subtypes
U+30FC
SOUND MARK indicate a long vowel. (written with an en dash); at least one authority considers name pairs, where the paired elements carry equal
weight, as in the Taft–Hartley Act to be "simple",[20] while others consider an en dash appropriate in instances
such as these[23][24][25] to represent the parallel relationship, as in the McCain–Feingold bill or Bose–Einstein not expected to connect, unlike U+203E ‾
OVERLINE.
statistics. When an act of the U.S. Congress is named using the surnames of the senator and representative who
sponsored it, the hyphen-minus is used in the short title; thus, the short title of Public Law 111–203 is "The A phonetic symbol (a line applied above the
U+02C9 ˉ Mˉˉˉˉˉ MODIFIER LETTER MACRON
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act", with a hyphen-minus rather than an en dash base letter).
between "Dodd" and "Frank".[26] However, there is a difference between something named for a A phonetic symbol (a line applied below the
U+02CD ˍ Mˍˍˍˍˍ MODIFIER LETTER LOW MACRON
parallel/coordinate relationship between two people – for example, Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein – base letter).
and something named for a single person who had a compound surname, which may be written with a hyphen or A variant of the minus sign used in
a space but not an en dash – for example, the Lennard-Jones potential [hyphen] is named after one person (John U+02D7 ˗ M˗˗˗˗˗ MODIFIER LETTER MINUS SIGN phonetics to mark a retracted or backed
Lennard-Jones), as are Bence Jones proteins and Hughlings Jackson syndrome. Copyeditors use dictionaries articulation. It may show small end-serifs.
(general, medical, biographical, and geographical) to confirm the eponymity (and thus the styling) for specific ˜
U+02DC M˜˜˜˜˜ SMALL TILDE A spacing clone of tilde diacritic mark.
terms, given that no one can know them all offhand.
U+058A ֊ ARMENIAN HYPHEN
Preference for an en dash instead of a hyphen in these coordinate/relationship/connection types of terms is a
matter of style, not inherent orthographic "correctness"; both are equally "correct", and each is the preferred style U+05BE ‫־‬ HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF

in some style guides. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the AMA Manual
of Style, and Dorland's medical reference works use hyphens, not en dashes, in coordinate terms (such as "blood- U+06D4 ‫۔‬ ARABIC FULL STOP
brain barrier"), in eponyms (such as "Cheyne-Stokes respiration", "Kaplan-Meier method"), and so on.
U+1400 ᐀ CANADIAN SYLLABICS HYPHEN

Attributive compounds CANADIAN SYLLABICS FINAL SHORT

U+1428 ᐨ HORIZONTAL STROKE
In English, the en dash is usually used instead of a hyphen in compound (phrasal) attributives in which one or
both elements is itself a compound, especially when the compound element is an open compound, meaning it is U+1806 ᠆ MONGOLIAN TODO SOFT HYPHEN

not itself hyphenated. This manner of usage may include such examples as:[20][21][27][28]
U+1B78 ᭸ BALINESE MUSICAL SYMBOL LEFT-HAND
OPEN PANG
The hospital–nursing home connection (the connection between the hospital and the nursing
home, not a home connection between the hospital and nursing) The character that can be used to
U+2010 ‐ M‐‐‐‐‐ HYPHEN
unambiguously represent a hyphen.
A nursing home–home care policy (a policy about the nursing home and home care)
Also called "hard hyphen", denotes a
Pre–Civil War era hyphen after which no word wrapping may
Pulitzer Prize–winning novel apply. This is the case where the hyphen is
part of a trigraph or tetragraph denoting a
New York–style pizza ‑
U+2011 M‑‑‑‑‑ NON-BREAKING HYPHEN specific sound (like in the Swiss placename
The non–San Francisco part of the world "S-chanf"), or where specific orthographic
The post–World War II era rules prevent a line break (like in German
compounds of single-letter abbreviations
(Compare post-war era, which, if not fully compounded (postwar), takes a hyphen, not an en and full nouns, as "E-Mail").
dash. The difference is that war is not an open compound, whereas World War II is.) Similar to an en dash, but with exactly the
width of a digit in the chosen typeface. The
Trans–New Guinea languages
vertical position may also be centered on
The ex–prime minister the zero digit, and thus higher than the en
a long–focal length camera dash and em dash, which are appropriate
U+2012 ‒ M‒‒‒‒‒ FIGURE DASH
for use with lowercase text in a vertical
water ice–based bedrock position similar to the hyphen. The figure
The pro-conscription–anti-conscription debate dash may therefore be preferred to the en
dash for indicating a closed range of
Public-school–private-school rivalries values.[56]

The disambiguating value of the en dash in these patterns was illustrated by Strunk and White in The Elements of U+2013 – M––––– EN DASH

Style with the following example: When Chattanooga News and Chattanooga Free Press merged, the joint U+2014 — M————— EM DASH
company was inaptly named Chattanooga News-Free Press (using a hyphen), which could be interpreted as
meaning that their newspapers were news-free.[29] U+2015 ― M――――― HORIZONTAL BAR

A character similar to U+00AF ¯ MACRON,

An exception to the use of en dashes is usually made when prefixing an already-hyphenated compound; an en U+203E ‾ M‾‾‾‾‾ OVERLINE but a sequence of such characters usually
dash is generally avoided as a distraction in this case. Examples of this include:[29] connects.

non-English-speaking air traffic controllers U+2043 ⁃ M⁃⁃⁃⁃⁃ HYPHEN BULLET A short horizontal line used as a list bullet.

semi-labor-intensive industries U+2053 ⁓ M⁓⁓⁓⁓⁓ SWUNG DASH

Proto-Indo-European language
The post-MS-DOS era
 Em dash (—) En dash (–) Notes non-government-owned corporations
Windows Alt + 0 1 5 1 [53] Alt + 0 1 5 0 Must use digits on the numeric keypad. An en dash can be retained to avoid ambiguity, but whether any ambiguity is plausible is a judgment call. AMA
Microsoft
Ctrl + Alt + - Ctrl + - Must use the hyphen on the numeric keypad
style retains the en dashes in the following examples:[30]
Word

Microsoft Word's default Autocorrect. Word non–self-governing

Autocorrect - - space - space may insert the dash in a different font than non–English-language journals
that of the surrounding text.
non–group-specific blood
Works when using the Australian, British, non–Q-wave myocardial infarction
Canadian, Finnish, French, German, Irish,
macOS ⌥ Opt + ⇧ Shift + - ⌥ Opt + - Irish Extended, Italian, Pro Italian, Russian, non–brain-injured subjects
US, US Extended, or Welsh keyboard
layouts.[54]
Differing recommendations
Depends on selected layout. In some layouts
Linux Compose - - - Compose - - . AltGr + - produces en dash and
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + - em dash. As discussed above, the en dash is sometimes recommended instead of a hyphen in compound adjectives where
neither part of the adjective modifies the other—that is, when each modifies the noun, as in love–hate
Plan 9 Compose E M Compose E N relationship.
The en dash is the second option while the
em dash is third. A double-tap of the hyphen The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), however, limits the use of the en dash to two main purposes:
iOS Holding the - (hyphen) on the on-screen keyboard until key - also produces en and em dashes,
a popup appears with choices, then sliding the finger or depending on whether the preceding First, use it to indicate ranges of time, money, or other amounts, or in certain other cases where it
thumb upwards to the desired option, then releasing. character is a digit or a letter. replaces the word "to".
Android The em dash is first and the en dash third. Second, use it in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of the elements of the
adjective is an open compound, or when two or more of its elements are compounds, open or
HTML — –
hyphenated.[31]
LaTeX --- or \textemdash -- or \textendash These options also work in TeX.[55]
That is, the CMOS favors hyphens in instances where some other guides suggest en dashes, with the 16th edition
explaining that "Chicago's sense of the en dash does not extend to between", to rule out its use in "US–Canadian
Unicode relations".[32]

Code M and 5× Name Remark In these two uses, en dashes normally do not have spaces around them. Some make an exception when they
The ASCII hyphen. Sometimes this is used
believe avoiding spaces may cause confusion or look odd. For example, compare "12 June – 3 July" with
in groups to indicate different types of dash. "12 June–3 July".[33] However, other authorities disagree and state there should be no space between an en dash
U+002D - M----- HYPHEN-MINUS
In programming languages it is used as the and adjacent text. These authorities would not use a space in, for example, "11:00 a.m.⁠–⁠1:00 p.m."[34] or
minus sign.
"July 9–August 17".[35][36]
ASCII underscore, usually a horizontal line
below the baseline (i.e. a spacing
underscore). It is commonly used within Parenthetic and other uses at the sentence level
URLs and identifiers in programming
languages, where a space-like separation
between parts is desired but a real space is En dashes can be used instead of pairs of commas that mark off a nested clause or phrase. They can also be used
U+005F _ M_____ LOW LINE
not appropriate. As usual for ASCII around parenthetical expressions – such as this one – rather than the em dashes preferred by some
characters, this character shows a
considerable range of glyphic variation;
publishers.[37][8]
therefore, whether sequences of this
character connect depends on the font The en dash can also signify a rhetorical pause. For example, an opinion piece from The Guardian is entitled:
used.

Used in programming languages (e.g. for

Who is to blame for the sweltering weather? My kids say it's boomers – and me[38]
the bitwise NOT operator in C and C++). Its
U+007E ~ M~~~~~ TILDE glyphic representation varies, therefore for In these situations, en dashes must have a single space on each side.[8]
punctuation in running text the use of more
specific characters is preferred, see above.
Used to indicate where a line may break, as Itemization mark
U+00AD SOFT HYPHEN
in a compound word or between syllables.

U+00AF ¯ M¯¯¯¯¯ MACRON A horizontal line positioned at cap height

usually having the same length as
U+005F _ LOW LINE. It is a spacing
character, related to the diacritic mark
"macron". A sequence of such characters is
Either the en dash or the em dash may be used as a bullet at the start of each item in a bulleted list. (This is a The horizontal bar (U+2015 ― ), also known as a quotation dash, is used to introduce quoted text. This is the
matter of graphic design rather than orthography.) standard method of printing dialogue in some languages. The em dash is equally suitable if the quotation dash is
unavailable or is contrary to the house style being used.

Typography There is no support in the standard TeX fonts, but one can use \hbox{---}\kern-.5em--- or an em dash.

Spacing Swung dash

In most uses of en dashes, such as when used in indicating ranges, they are closed up to the joined words. It is The swung dash (U+2053 ⁓ ) resembles a lengthened tilde and is used to separate alternatives or
only when en dashes are used in setting off parenthetical expressions – such as this one – that they take spaces approximates. In dictionaries, it is frequently used to stand in for the term being defined. A dictionary entry
around them.[39] For more on the choice of em versus en in this context, see En dash versus em dash. providing an example for the term henceforth might employ the swung dash as follows:

Encoding and substitution henceforth (adv.) from this time forth; from now on; "⁓ she will be known as Mrs. Wales"

When an en dash is unavailable in a particular character encoding environment—as in the ASCII character set—
there are some conventional substitutions. Often two consecutive hyphens are the substitute.
The en dash is encoded in Unicode as U+2013 (decimal 8211) and represented in HTML by the named character
entity –.
The en dash is sometimes used as a substitute for the minus sign, when the minus sign character is not available
since the en dash is usually the same width as a plus sign and is often available when the minus sign is not; see
below. For example, the original 8-bit Macintosh Character Set had an en dash, useful for the minus sign, years
before Unicode with a dedicated minus sign was available. The hyphen-minus is usually too narrow to make a
typographically acceptable minus sign. However, the en dash cannot be used for a minus sign in programming
languages because the syntax usually requires a hyphen-minus.
Typing the characters
Typewriters and computers often have no key that produces a dash. In consequence, it became common to use
the hyphen. It is common for a single hyphen surrounded by spaces to represent an en dash, and for two hyphens
to represent an em dash.[8] (A hyphen surrounded by other characters is a hyphen, with a space before it or with
digits it is a minus sign.)
Modern word-processing software typically has support for many more characters and is usually capable of
rendering both the en and em dashes correctly—albeit sometimes with an inconvenient input method. Techniques
for generating em and en dashes in various operating systems, word processors and markup languages are
provided in the following table:

Em dash
The em dash, em rule, or mutton dash[11] — is longer than an en dash. The character is called an em dash
because it is one em wide, a length that varies depending on the font size. One em is the same length as the font's
height (which is typically measured in points). So in 9-point type, an em dash is nine points wide, while in 24-
point type the em dash is 24 points wide. By comparison, the en dash, with its 1 en width, is in most fonts either a
half-em wide[40] or the width of an upper-case "N".[41]

The em dash is encoded in Unicode as U+2014 (decimal 8212) and represented in HTML by the named character
entity —.

Usage

The em dash is used in several ways. It is primarily used in places where a set of parentheses or a colon might
otherwise be used,[42] and it can also show an abrupt change in thought (or an interruption in speech) or be used
where a full stop (period) is too strong and a comma is too weak. Em dashes are also used to set off summaries or
definitions.[43] Common uses and definitions are cited below with examples.

Colon-like use

Simple equivalence (or near-equivalence) of colon and em dash

Three alkali metals are the usual substituents: sodium, potassium, and lithium.
conveys that typewritten manuscript and copyediting on paper are now dated practices.) The three-hyphen em Three alkali metals are the usual substituents—sodium, potassium, and lithium.
dash proxy was popular with various publishers because the sequence of one, two, or three hyphens could then
correspond to the hyphen, en dash, and em dash, respectively.
Inversion of the function of a colon
Because early comic book letterers were not aware of the typographic convention of replacing a typewritten
These are the colors of the flag: red, white, and blue.
double hyphen with an em dash, the double hyphen became traditional in American comics. This practice has
Red, white, and blue—these are the colors of the flag.
continued despite the development of computer lettering.[50][51]

En dash versus em dash Parenthesis-like use

The en dash is wider than the hyphen but not as wide as the em dash. An Simple equivalence (or near-equivalence) of paired parenthetical marks
em width is defined as the point size of the currently used font, since the
M character is not always the width of the point size.[52] In running text, Compare parentheses with em dashes:
various dash conventions are employed: an em dash—like so—or a spaced
Three alkali metals (sodium, potassium, and lithium) are the usual substituents.
em dash — like so — or a spaced en dash – like so – can be seen in
Three alkali metals—sodium, potassium, and lithium—are the usual substituents.
contemporary publications.
Compare commas, em dashes and parentheses (respectively) when no internal commas
Various style guides and national varieties of languages prescribe different intervene:
guidance on dashes. Dashes have been cited as being treated differently in
The food, which was delicious, reminded me of home.
the US and the UK, with the former preferring the use of an em dash with
The food—which was delicious—reminded me of home.
no additional spacing and the latter preferring a spaced en dash.[37] As
examples of the US style, The Chicago Manual of Style and The The food (which was delicious) reminded me of home.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
recommend unspaced em dashes. Style guides outside the US are more
Subtle differences in punctuation
variable. For example, The Elements of Typographic Style by Canadian
typographer Robert Bringhurst recommends the spaced en dash – like so – It may indicate an interpolation stronger than that demarcated by parentheses, as in the following from Nicholson
and argues that the length and visual magnitude of an em dash "belongs to Baker's The Mezzanine (the degree of difference is subjective).
the padded and corseted aesthetic of Victorian typography".[8] In the These comparisons of the
United Kingdom, the spaced en dash is the house style for certain major hyphen (-), n, en dash (–), m, and
"At that age I once stabbed my best friend, Fred, with a pair of pinking shears in the base of the
publishers, including the Penguin Group, the Cambridge University Press, em dash (—), in various 12-point
neck, enraged because he had been given the comprehensive sixty-four-crayon Crayola box—
fonts, illustrate the typical
and Routledge. However, this convention is not universal. The Oxford including the gold and silver crayons—and would not let me look closely at the box to see how
relationship between lengths ("- n – Crayola had stabilized the built-in crayon sharpener under the tiers of crayons."
Guide to Style (2002, section 5.10.10) acknowledges that the spaced en
m —"). In some fonts, the en dash
dash is used by "other British publishers" but states that the Oxford
is not much longer than the hyphen,
University Press, like "most US publishers", uses the unspaced em dash.
and in Lucida Grande, the en dash Interruption of a speaker
The en dash – always with spaces in running text when, as discussed in is actually shorter than the hyphen.
this section, indicating a parenthesis or pause – and the spaced em dash
Interruption by someone else
both have a certain technical advantage over the unspaced em dash. Most
typesetting and word processing expects word spacing to vary to support full justification. Alone among "But I'm trying to explain that I—"
punctuation that marks pauses or logical relations in text, the unspaced em dash disables this for the words it falls "I'm aware of your mitigating circumstances, but your negative attitude was excessive."
between. This can cause uneven spacing in the text, but can be mitigated by the use of thin spaces, hair spaces, or
even zero-width spaces on the sides of the em dash. This provides the appearance of an unspaced em dash, but In a related use, it may visually indicate the shift between speakers when they overlap in speech. For example,
allows the words and dashes to break between lines. The spaced em dash risks introducing excessive separation the em dash is used this way in Joseph Heller's Catch-22:
of words. In full justification, the adjacent spaces may be stretched, and the separation of words further
exaggerated. En dashes may also be preferred to em dashes when text is set in narrow columns, such as in He was Cain, Ulysses, the Flying Dutchman; he was Lot in Sodom, Deirdre of the Sorrows,
newspapers and similar publications, since the en dash is smaller. In such cases, its use is based purely on space Sweeney in the nightingales among trees. He was the miracle ingredient Z-147. He was—
considerations and is not necessarily related to other typographical concerns. "Crazy!" Clevinger interrupted, shrieking. "That's what you are! Crazy!"
"—immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide
On the other hand, a spaced en dash may be ambiguous when it is also used for ranges, for example, in dates or supraman."
between geographical locations with internal spaces.
Self-interruption
Horizontal bar
Simple revision of a statement as one's thoughts evolve on the fly:
"I believe I shall—no, I'm going to do it."
 Contemplative or emotional trailing off (usually in dialogue or in first person narrative):
"I sense something; a presence I've not felt since—" in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.[44]
"Get out or else—"
Either an ellipsis or an em dash can indicate aposiopesis, the rhetorical device by which a
sentence is stopped short not because of interruption, but because the speaker is too emotional
or pensive to continue. Because the ellipsis is the more common choice, an em dash for this
purpose may be ambiguous in expository text, as many readers would assume interruption,
although it may be used to indicate great emotion in dramatic monologue.
An em dash may be used to indicate omitted letters in a word redacted to an initial or single letter or to fillet a
word, by leaving the start and end letters whilst replacing the middle letters with a dash or dashes (for censorship
or simply data anonymization). It may also censor the end letter. In this use, it is sometimes doubled.
It was alleged that D⸺ had been threatened with blackmail.
Three em dashes might be used to indicate a completely missing word.[47]
Itemization mark

Long pause: Either the en dash or the em dash may be used as a bullet at the start of each item in a bulleted list, but a plain
hyphen is more commonly used.
In Early Modern English texts and afterward, em dashes have been used to add long pauses
(as noted in Joseph Robertson's 1785 An Essay On Punctuation):
Repetition
Lord Cardinal! if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, Three em dashes one after another can be used in a footnote, endnote, or another form of bibliographic entry to
Hold up thy hand, make signal of that hope.— indicate repetition of the same author's name as that of the previous work,[47] which is similar to the use of id.
He dies, and makes no sign!

— Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2 Typographic details

Quotation Spacing and substitution

According to most American sources (such as The Chicago Manual of Style) and some British sources (such as
Quotation mark–like use
The Oxford Guide to Style), an em dash should always be set closed, meaning it should not be surrounded by
spaces. But the practice in some parts of the English-speaking world, including the style recommended by The
This is a quotation dash. It may be distinct from an em dash in its coding (see horizontal bar). It may be used to
New York Times Manual of Style and Usage for printed newspapers and the AP Stylebook, sets it open, separating
indicate turns in a dialogue, in which case each dash starts a paragraph.[45] It replaces other quotation marks and
it from its surrounding words by using spaces or hair spaces (U+200A) when it is being used
was preferred by authors such as James Joyce:[46]
parenthetically.[48][49] The AP Stylebook rejects the use of the open em dash to set off introductory items in lists.
―O saints above! miss Douce said, sighed above her jumping rose. I wished I hadn't laughed so However, the "space, en dash, space" sequence is the predominant style in German and French typography. (See
much. I feel all wet. En dash versus em dash below.)
―O, miss Douce! miss Kennedy protested. You horrid thing!
In Canada, The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing, The Oxford Canadian A to Z of Grammar,
Spelling & Punctuation: Guide to Canadian English Usage (2nd ed.), Editing Canadian English, and the
Attribution of quote source Canadian Oxford Dictionary all specify that an em dash should be set closed when used between words, a word
and numeral, or two numerals.
Inline quotes:
A penny saved is a penny earned. — Benjamin Franklin The Australian government's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (6th ed.), also specifies that em
dashes inserted between words, a word and numeral, or two numerals, should be set closed. A section on the 2-
Block quotes: em rule (⸺) also explains that the 2-em can be used to mark an abrupt break in direct or reported speech, but a
space is used before the 2-em if a complete word is missing, while no space is used if part of a word exists before
The Walrus and the Carpenter the sudden break. Two examples of this are as follows:
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see I distinctly heard him say, "Go away or I'll ⸺".
Such quantities of sand: It was alleged that D⸺ had been threatened with blackmail.
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
Approximating the em dash with two or three hyphens
— Lewis Carroll
When an em dash is unavailable in a particular character encoding environment—as in the ASCII character set—
it has usually been approximated as consecutive double (--) or triple (---) hyphen-minuses. The two-hyphen em
Redaction dash proxy is perhaps more common, being a widespread convention in the typewriting era. (It is still described
for hard copy manuscript preparation in the Chicago Manual of Style as of the 16th edition, although the manual