![]() It denotes a connection or contrast between pairs of words (conservative–liberal split, Arizona–Nevada reciprocity, Sarbanes–Oxley Act). If you open with from, pair it with to instead of an en dash (from 1880 to 1912, not from 1880–1912). The en dash ( –) is about half as wide.Įn and em dashes are often approximated by typing two or three hyphens in a row ( - or - ). The em dash ( -) is typically about as wide as a capital H. If you mean the latter, then you’d write five-dollar bills.ĭashes come in two sizes-the en dash and the em dash. Is five the quantity of dollar bills, or are the bills each worth five dollars? As written, it suggests the former. As a professional writer, you should not.įor instance, consider the unhyphenated phrase five dollar bills. Nonprofessional writers often omit these hyphens. Nor is a hyphen necessary in multipart foreign terms or proper names used as adjectives ( habeas corpus appeal on the Third Circuit docket, not habeas-corpus appeal on the Third-Circuit docket).Ī hyphen is used in phrasal adjectives (commercial-speech restriction, estate-planning attorney, law-school grades) to ensure clarity. No hyphen is necessary in phrasal adjectives that begin with an adverb ending in ‑ly (it’s a closely held company, not a closely-held company). But a prefix is not typically followed with a hyphen ( nonprofit, not non-profit). Some multipart words are spelled with a hyphen (topsy-turvy, cost-effective, bric-a-brac). These hyphens are added and removed automatically by your word processor’s hyphenation feature. ![]() It has three uses.Ī hyphen appears at the end of a line when a word breaks onto the next line. The hyphen ( -) is the smallest of these marks. Hyphens and dashes look similar, but they’re not interchangeable. Hyphens and dashes Use them, don’t confuse them
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