See also: Appendix:Variations of "-"
Translingual
Punctuation mark
— (English name em dash)
- 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.
1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 18:Hence, another way to describe this level of reading is to say that its aim is to get the most out of a book within a given time—usually a relatively short time, and always (by definition) too short a time to get out of the book everything that can be gotten.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:—.
- 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
- Indicates aposiopesis, an abrupt breaking-off in speech. See also … (“the ellipsis”).
1898, Fox Russell, “Outridden”, in Fores's Sporting Notes and Sketches[1], volume 15:He is so—so proud of his money, and thinks every one ought to be as stupidly rich as he is himself.
2011, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 390:"Your information, sir," the Librarian says.
"Are you smart enough to tie that information into YOU ARE HERE?" Hiro says.
"I'll see what I can do, sir. The formats appear to be reconcilable. Sir?"
"Yes?"
”The blueprints are several years old. Since they were made, the Enterprise has been purchased by a private owner—"
"Who may have made some changes. Gotcha."
Hiro’s back in Reality.
- 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.
- Indicates a lack of data in a table.[1]
- Alternative form of ― (“horizontal bar; quotation dash; introduces a line of dialogue”)
- Used to censor letters in obscene words.
- Synonym: ⸺
D—n. [Damn] F—k. [Fuck]
1820, Cruikshank, All among the Hottentots capering to shore[2] (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!!
- (dated, fiction) Used to replace part or all of a person's name, a place name, a date, or so forth. [chiefly 19th c.]
- Synonyms: ⸺, ⸻
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.
- Used as a ditto mark in lists or tables to indicate a repetition of appropriate content above.
- Synonym: —〃—
- Coordinate term: 〃
- 1950, United States Census, New York, page listing Frank Valasky of New York City:
- Valasky, Frank […]
- —, Edna M […]
- (music) A pointing mark in Anglican chant, used as a placeholder in the text to indicate that a bar of the chant should be omitted; typically used when a verse or half-verse is very short.
- Coordinate terms: |, ', :, *, ·, ‖, †
Derived terms
Derived terms
- ⸺ (two-em dash)
- ⸻ (three-em dash)
See also
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
References
- ^ Joan G. Nagle, Handbook for preparing engineering documents: from concept to completion, 1995, p. 114:
We can use the word none or N/D (no data), or insert an em dash; any of these entries show that we haven't simply forgotten to fill the cell. N/A is commonly used for not applicable. It's good practice to footnote N/A or N/D the first time it is used.
Russian
Punctuation mark
—
- Indicates the zero copula (omission of the present tense of быть (bytʹ)).
- Used in — —.
- 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.
Usage notes
- ⟨—⟩ is not used when the subject is a pronoun; e.g. я ру́сский (ja rússkij, “I am Russian”) or with predicative adjectives.
- ⟨— —⟩ is preferred over parentheses when the supplemental information is necessary to understand the writer's point and cannot be dropped.
- 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.