—

See also: Appendix:Variations of "-"

— U+2014, — EM DASH ← – [U+2013] General Punctuation ― → [U+2015]

﹘ U+FE58, ﹘ SMALL EM DASH ← ﹗ [U+FE57] Small Form Variants ﹙ → [U+FE59]

︱ U+FE31, ︱ PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL EM DASH ← ︰ [U+FE30] CJK Compatibility Forms ︲ → [U+FE32]

Translingual

Alternative forms

• - (improper typesetting)
• --, ---, ---- (informal)

Punctuation mark

— (English name em dash) (Alt + 0151)

1. Demarcates parenthetical thought. See — —.
   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 182–183:

     I have explained it to myself in the most satisfactory way;—but you, Elinor, who love to doubt where you can——It will not satisfy you I know; but you shall not talk me out of my trust in it.

     A small gap is visible in the double em dash.

2. Indicates a logical consequence.

   Synonym: :

   • 1962, Jack Frohlichstein, Mathematical Fun, Games and Puzzles (in English), Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 9:

     Bet anyone he can't correctly name the next highest number to every number which you will give him. […]
     43 — he will say 44
     87 — he will say 88
     123 — he will say 124

3. Indicates aposiopesis, an abrupt breaking-off in speech. See also … (“the ellipsis”).
4. Separates a term from its definition.
   • 2011, Adam Rizvi, Click Start to Begin: Windows XP Basics (in English), Click Start Publishing Ltd., →ISBN, page 22:

     Refresh — This will refresh the current folder, updating it with any new files or settings.

5. Indicates a lack of data in a table.
6. Alternative form of ― (“horizontal bar; quotation dash; introduces a line of dialogue”)
7. Used to censor letters in obscene words.
   • 1820, Cruikshank, All among the Hottentots capering to shore‎^[1] (painting; in English):

     D—n the Devil .. he be going to eat me!!! — Rot me if he ain't as bloody minded as a Manchester butcher! Oh! dear! Oh! dear!! D—n your outlandish jaws!!

   D—n. [Damn] F—k. [Fuck]

   Synonym: ⸺

8. (dated, fiction) Used to replace part or all of a person's name, a place name, a date, or so forth. [chiefly 19th century]
   • 1748, a Lady, in a Letter to her Friend in the Country, A Free Comment on the Late Mr. W—g—n’s Apology for His Conduct; Which Clears Up the Obscurities of That Celebrated Posthumous Work, and Dissipates the Clouds in Which the Author Has Thought Proper to Envelope His Meaning (in English), London: […] W. Webb, page 15:

     I hope D—ds—y will look to theſe literal Errors, he being the only one of the Trade I can venture to truſt.

   Synonyms: ⸺, ⸻

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:—.

Derived terms

• — —

Derived terms

• ⸺ (two-em dash)
• ⸻ (three-em dash)

See also

quotation marks and quotation dashes in all languages (edit)

• Afrikaans: “ ”, ‘ ’, „ ”, ‚ ’
• Albanian: „ “, ‘ ’
• Arabic: « », “ ”
• Armenian: « »
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: « », “ ”
• Azerbaijani: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, " ", ‘ ’, ' '
• Basque: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, ‘ ’
• Belarusian: « », “ ”
• Bulgarian: „ “, ’ ’, ‘ ’, « », ’ ’, ‘ ’, —
• Catalan: « », “ ”, ‘ ’
• Chinese: “ ”, ‘ ’, 「 」, 『 』
• Czech: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Danish: » «, „ “, › ‹, ‚ ’, ” ”, ’ ’
• Dutch: ‘ ’, “ ”, ‚ ’, „ ”
• English U.K.: ' ', " ", ‘ ’, “ ”
• English U.S.: " ", ' ', “ ”, ‘ ’
• Esperanto: “ ”, ‘ ’, —
• Estonian: „ “, « »
• Filipino: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Finnish: ” ”, ’ ’, » »
• French: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, —
• Georgian: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• German: „ “, ‚ ‘   ;   » «, › ‹   ;   regional: « », ‹ ›
• Greek: « », “ ”, —
• Hungarian: „ ”, » «, —
• Icelandic: „ “, ‚ ‘
• Indonesian: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Interlingua: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Irish: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Italian: « », ‹ ›, ‟ ”, ‛ ’
• Japanese: 「 」, 『 』, 〝 〟, 〝 〞
• Korean: “ ”, ‘ ’, 『 』, 「 」
• Latvian: « », „ “
• Lithuanian: « », „ “
• Lower Sorbian: „ “, ‚ ‘
• Macedonian: „ “, ’ ‘
• Northern Kurdish: « »
• Norwegian: « », „ “, ‘ ’, ‚ ‘
• Persian: « »
• Polish: „ ”, « », » «, —
• Portuguese: “ ”, ‘ ’, « », —
• Romanian: „ ”, « », —
• Russian: « », „ “, „ ”, —
• Serbo-Croatian: „ ”, ” ”, ‘ ’, ’ ’, „ “, » «
• Slovak: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Slovene: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Spanish: « », “ ”, ‘ ’, —
• Swedish: ” ”, ’ ’, » », » «, —
• Thai: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Turkish: “ ”, ‘ ’, « », › ‹, —
• Ukrainian: « », „ ”, ‚ ‘
• Vietnamese: “ ”, —
• Welsh: ‘ ’, “ ”

quotation marks - all matched-pairs

• Curved double quotation marks: “ ”, ” ”, „ ”, „ “, ‟ ”
• Curved single quotation marks: ‘ ’, ’ ’, ‚ ’, ‚ ‘, ’ ‘, ‛ ’
• Straight double quotation marks: " "
• Straight single quotation marks: ' '
• Guillemets: « », » «, » »
• Single guillemets: ‹ ›, › ‹
• Corner brackets: 「 」, 『 』
• Prime quotation marks: 〝 〟, 〝 〞

quotation marks and quotation dashes - all single characters

• Curved double quotation marks: “, ”, „, ‟
• Curved single quotation marks and apostrophes: ‘, ’, ‚, ‛
• Straight double quotation mark: "
• Straight single quotation mark and apostrophe: '
• Prime quotation marks: 〝, 〞, 〟
• Guillemets: «, »
• Single guillemets: ‹, ›
• Corner brackets: 「, 」, 『, 』
• Quotation dashes: — (em dash), ― (horizontal bar), – (en dash)

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
• square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )
• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
• full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
• quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
• semicolon ( ; )
• slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space ( ] [ )

English

Abbreviation

—

1. (stenoscript) the letter sequence ⟨th⟩

   (see: —t that, —r their/there, —z these, —a they, —s this, —oz those)

2. (stenoscript) Abbreviation of the.
3. (stenoscript) the sound sequences /(V)nd/, /(V)nt/
4. (stenoscript) the suffixes or sequences mand, mend, mond, -ment

   (e.g. ⟨a— —⟩ amendment)

Usage notes

• (stenoscript) The dash may be written low, along the baseline, or high, at x-height, as convenient for whichever letters it links to. For example, with mo—n for 'more than', the dash is likely to be written at x-height.
• (stenoscript) When used as punctuation, an en or em dash is doubled, like a long ⹀, to distinguish it from its phonetic use.

Russian

Punctuation mark

—

1. Indicates zero (omission) of the present tense of быть (bytʹ). Called тире́ (tirɛ́) in Russian.

   Вре́мя — де́ньги.

   Vrémja — dénʹgi.

   Time is money.

2. Used in — —.
3. Replaces ‐ in some appositions, where hyphen would be used to connect the appositive word and the word in apposition if neither of them were a phrase.

   Не́которые госуда́рства — чле́ны ЕС препя́тствуют размеще́нию бе́женцев на свое́й террито́рии.

   Nékotoryje gosudárstva — člény JeS prepjátstvujut razmeščéniju béžencev na svojéj territórii.

   Some EU member states prevent placement of refugees on their territory.

Usage notes

1. — is not used when the subject is a pronoun; e.g. я ру́сский (ja rússkij, “I am Russian”) or with predicative adjectives.
2. — — are preferred over ( ) when the supplemental information is necessary to understand author's point and can't be dropped.
3. A dash or a hyphen is used in Russian apposition when the first word (or first words) is not a form of address (e.g. товарищ (tovarišč)) and the second word is an appellative.