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For other uses, see Dash (disambiguation).
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apostrophe ( ’ \' ) |
| Interword separation |
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spaces ( ) ( ) ( ) |
| General typography |
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ampersand ( & ) |
| Uncommon typography |
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asterism ( ⁂ ) |
Not to be confused with Hyphen.
A dash is a punctuation mark. It is longer than a hyphen and is used differently.
Contents |
There are several forms of dash, of which the most common are:
| glyph | UnicodeCharacters in Unicode are referenced in prose via the "U+" notation. The hexadecimal number after the "U+" is the character\'s Unicode code point. The decimal equivalent is shown in parentheses. | HTMLSpecifically, the predefined character entity reference that can be used in an HTML document in place of a literal dash. | HTML/XMLSpecifically, the numeric character reference that can be used in an HTML or XML document in place of a literal dash. | TeX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hyphen | ‐ | U+2010 (8208) | none | ‐ or ‐
| -
|
| figure dash | ‒ | U+2012 (8210) | none | ‒ or ‒
| none |
| en dash | – | U+2013 (8211) | –
| – or –
| --
|
| em dash | — | U+2014 (8212) | —
| — or —
| ---
|
| horizontal bar | ― | U+2015 (8213) | none | ― or ―
| |
| swung dash | U+2053 (8275) | none | ⁓ or ⁓
|
The hyphen (‐) is used both to join words and to separate syllables. Strictly speaking, the hyphen is not a dash; thus, careful typesetting (including with modern computer applications, such as word processors and HTML) relies on the following proper dashes instead.
The figure dash (‒) is so named because it is the same width as a digit, at least in typefaces with digits of equal width.
The figure dash is used when a dash must be used within numbers, for example with telephone numbers: 867‒5309. This does not indicate a range (en dash is used for that), or function as the minus sign (which has its own glyph).
The figure dash is often unavailable; in this case, one may use a hyphen-minus instead. In Unicode, the figure dash is U+2012 (decimal 8210). HTML authors must use the numeric forms ‒ or ‒ to type it unless the file is in Unicode; there is no equivalent character entity. In TeX, the standard fonts have no figure dash; however, the digits normally all have the same width as the en dash, so an en dash can be substituted in TeX.
The en dash, or n dash, n-rule, etc., (–) is roughly the width of the letter n. It is half the size of an em dash.
The en dash is used in ranges, such as 6–10 years, read as "six to ten years".
The en dash is commonly used to indicate a closed range (a range with clearly defined and non-infinite upper and lower boundaries) of values, such as those between dates, times, or numbers.Griffith, Benjamin W., et al. Barron\'s Pocket Guide to Correct Grammar. New York: Barron\'s Educational Series, 2004.Judd, Karen. Copyediting: A Practical Guide. Menlo Park, California: Crisp Learning, 2001.Loberger, Gordon and Kate Shoup Welsh. Webster\'s New World English Grammar Handbook. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, 2002.Ives, George B. Text, Type and Style: A Compendium of Atlantic Usage. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921.
Some examples of this usage:
The Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) recommends that the word to be used instead of an en dash when a number range might be misconstrued as subtraction, such as a range of units. For example, "a voltage of 50 to 100 V" rather than "a voltage of 50–100 V".
It is also considered inappropriate to use the en dash in place of the words to and and in phrases that follow the forms from...to... and between...and.
The en dash can also be used to contrast values, or illustrate a relationship between two things.
Some examples of this usage:
A "simple" compound used as an adjective is written with a hyphen; at least one authority considers name pairs, as in the Taft-Hartley Act to be "simple", while most consider an en dash appropriate there to represent the parallel relationship, as in the McCain–Feingold bill or Bose–Einstein statistics.
Note that The Chicago Manual of Style limits the use of the en dash to two main purposes: to indicate ranges of time, money, or other amounts (or in certain other cases where it replaces the word to); and in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of the elements of the adjective is an open compound or when one of the elements is already hyphenated.The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 261–265 That is, the Chicago Manual of Style rules specify en dash in these:
but hyphens in these:
The en dash can be used instead of a hyphen in compound adjectives in which one part consists of two words or a hyphenated word:
The en dash is used instead of a hyphen in compound adjectives for which neither part of the adjective modifies the other. That is, when each is modifying the noun. This is common in science, when names compose an adjective as in Bose–Einstein condensate. Compare this with "award-winning novel" in which "award" modifies "winning" and together they modify "novel". Contrast "Franco-Prussian War", "Anglo-Saxon", etc., in which the first element does not strictly modify the second, but a hyphen is still normally used. The Chicago Manual of Style recognizes but does not mandate this usage and uses a hyphen in Bose-Einstein condensate.
En dashes that are used instead of hyphens to connect words normally do not have spaces around them. An exception is when excluding them may cause confusion or odd look (e.g., 12 June – 3 July; contrast 12 June–3 July). However, when an actual en dash is unavailable, one may use a hyphen-minus with a single space on each side (" - ").
Like em dashes, en dashes can be used instead of colons, or pairs of commas that mark off a nested clause or phrase. They can also be used around parenthetical expressions – such as this one – in place of the em dashes preferred by some publishers, particularly where short columns are used, since em dashes can look awkward at the end of a line. See En dash versus em dash, below. In these situations, en dashes must have a single space on each side.
In Unicode, the en dash is U+2013 (decimal 8211). In HTML, one may use the numeric forms – or –; there is also an HTML entity –. In TeX, the en dash may normally (depending on the font) be input as a double hyphen-minus (--). On a computer running the Mac OS X operating system, most keyboard layouts map an en dash to Option-hyphen. On Microsoft Windows, an en dash may be entered as Alt+0150, where the digits are typed on the numeric keypad while holding the Alt key down.
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. For example, the original 8-bit Macintosh character set had an en dash, useful for 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. The en dash cannot be used in programming languages for a minus, however, since the syntax usually requires a hyphen-minus; since programming languages are usually set in a fixed-pitch (monospaced) font face, the hyphen-minus looks acceptable there.
The em dash, or m dash, m-rule, etc., (—), indicates a parenthetical thought—like this one—or some similar interpolation. Its name derives from its defined width of one em (originally the width of the letter m), which is the length, expressed in points, by which font sizes are typically specified. Thus in 9-point type, an em is 9 points wide, while the em of 24-point type is 24 points wide, and so on. (By comparison, the en dash, with its 1-en width, is 1/2 em wide in any font.)
The em dash is used in much the way a colon or set of parentheses is used: it can show an abrupt change in thought or be used where a full stop (or "period") is too strong and a comma too weak. Em dashes are sometimes used in lists or definitions, but that is a style guide issue; a colon is often recommended for use instead.
According to most American sources (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style) and to some British sources (e.g., The Oxford Guide to Style), an em dash should always be set closed (not surrounded by spaces). But the practice in many parts of the English-speaking world, also the style recommended by The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, sets it open (separates it from its surrounding words by using spaces or hair spaces (U+200A)) when it is being used parenthetically. Some writers, finding the em dash unappealingly long, prefer to use an open-set en dash. This "space, en dash, space" sequence is also the predominant style in German and French typography. See En dash versus em dash below.
Monospaced fonts (such as Courier) that mimic the look of a typewriter have the same width for all characters. Some of these fonts have em and en dashes which more or less fill the monospaced width they have available. For example, "- – — −" will show as a hyphen, en dash, em dash, and minus in one\'s current monospace font. Traditionally, typewriters had only a single hyphen glyph, so it is common to use two monospace hyphens strung together--like this--to serve as an em dash.
When an actual em dash is unavailable—as in the ASCII character set—a double ("--") or triple hyphen-minus ("---") is used. In Unicode, the em dash is U+2014 (decimal 8212). In HTML, one may use the numeric forms — or —; there is also the HTML entity —. In TeX, the em dash may normally be input as a triple hyphen-minus (---). On a computer running the OS X operating system, most keyboard layouts map an em dash to Shift-Option-hyphen. On Microsoft Windows, an em dash may be entered as Alt+0151, where the digits are typed on the numeric keypad while holding the Alt key down. It can also be entered into Microsoft Office applications by using the ctrl-alt-hyphen combination.
The en dash is half the width of the em dash. The width of the en dash was originally the width of the typeset lowercase letter \'n\', while the width of the em dash was the width of an uppercase \'M\'; hence the names. A more correct definition of the em width is the point size of the currently used font, since the M character does not occupy an exact square in many fonts.A glossary of typographic terms. Adobe. Retrieved on 2007-10-18.
Traditionally an em dash—like so—or a spaced em dash — like so — has been used for a dash in running text. The Elements of Typographic Style recommends the more concise spaced en dash – like so – and argues that the length and visual magnitude of an em dash "belongs to the padded and corseted aesthetic of Victorian typography." The spaced en dash is also the house style for certain major publishers (Penguin, Cambridge University Press, and Routledge among them). However, some longstanding typographical guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style still recommend unspaced em dashes for this purpose. The Oxford Guide to Style (2002, section 5.10.10) acknowledges that this style is used by "other British publishers", but observes that Oxford University Press (OUP) does not use it. In practice, there is little consensus, and it is a matter of personal or house taste; the important thing is that usage should be consistent.
The en dash (always with spaces, in running text) and the spaced em dash both have a certain technical advantage over the unspaced em dash. In most typesetting and most word processing, the spacing between words is expected to be variable, so there can be full justification. Alone among punctuation that marks pauses or logical relations in text, the unspaced em dash disables this for the words between which it falls. The effect can be uneven spacing in the text.
En dashes are often preferred to em dashes when text is set in narrow columns (as in newspapers and similar publications).[citation needed]
The spaced em dash risks introducing excessive separation of words: it is already long, and the spaces increase the separation. In full justification, the adjacent spaces may be stretched, and the separation of words is further exaggerated.
Regardless of any other variations, the em dash should never be used in number ranges.
The horizontal bar or quotation dash (―) is used to introduce quoted text. This is the standard method of printing dialogue in some languages (see the quotation dash section of the Quotation mark article for further details of how it is used).
If the quotation dash is unavailable, then the em dash can be used instead. In Unicode, the quotation dash is U+2015 (decimal 8213). In HTML, it can be input only with the numeric form, ― or ―; there is no equivalent character entity. But since browser support for it is nearly non-existent and Unicode itself equates use, for web pages one generally uses the em dash. There is no support in the standard TeX fonts, but one can use \hbox{---}\kern-.5em--- instead (or just use an em dash).
The swung dash ( or ~;) resembles a lengthened tilde, and is used to separate alternatives or approximates. In dictionaries, it is frequently used to stand in for the defined term in example text. This character was added since Unicode 4.0.0.
Example:
In Japanese the swung dash is often used to indicate an extension of a vowel in slang. (See Japanese punctuation#Swung dash).
In Korean the swung dash is often used in place of an en dash.
The swung dash in Unicode is U+2053 (decimal 8275). In HTML, it can be input only with the numeric form, ⁓ or ⁓; there is no equivalent HTML entity.
In LaTeX2ε, one can use the math mode command $\sim$.
The are several characters which resemble dashes but have different meanings and uses. These include:
−, is an arithmetic operator used in mathematics to represent subtraction or negative numbers.
Typewriters and computers have traditionally had only a limited character set, often having no key with which to produce a dash. In consequence, it became common to substitute the nearest incorrect punctuation mark or symbol. Em dashes are often represented by a pair of spaces surrounding a single hyphen-minus (typical British usage) or by a pair of spaces surrounding two hyphen-minuses (mostly in the United States).
Modern computer software typically has support for many more characters, and is usually capable of rendering both the en and em dashes correctly—albeit sometimes with a little inconvenience for the user who has to input them. Some software, though, may operate in a more limited mode. Some text editors, for example, are restricted to working with a single 8-bit character encoding, and when unencodable characters are entered (e.g., by pasting from the clipboard), they are often blindly converted to question marks. Sometimes this happens to em and en dashes, even when the 8-bit encoding supports them, or when an alternative representation using hyphen-minuses would seem to be an option.
Any kind of dash can manifest directly in an HTML document, but HTML also allows them to be entered as character entity references. The entity names for the em dash and the en dash are mdash and ndash; therefore, they can be referenced in HTML as — and –. The equivalent numeric character references are — and –. Nearly all web browsers and operating systems used today are capable of rendering the numeric form, and almost as many correctly display the named form.
In professionally printed documents, the typographer sometimes adds hair space, or, rarely, a full inter-word space, on either side of an em dash. In HTML it is possible to generate a hair space using the numeric character reference  , but current-generation web browsers are not uniformly supportive of this character, and may render it incorrectly.
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