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Definition of en dash

en dash

Plural:en dashes
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• noun

1

A horizontal typographic punctuation mark (–) traditionally equal in width to the letter 'N' (or half an em dash), used primarily to indicate spans or ranges of numbers, dates, or time, and to link elements in complex compound modifiers.

Example

"The copy editor replaced the hyphens between the page numbers in the bibliography with proper en dashes."

Synonyms
View all synonyms for en dash

Word Nuance & Usage

Frequently confused with the shorter hyphen (-) and the longer em dash (—); the en dash (–) is specifically used to indicate inclusive ranges (such as 1990–1995 or pages 10–15) and to connect multi-word or open compound modifiers.

• Nearby Words

emulsion
emutail
en
en dash
enable
enablement
enabler

Usage Trend

Historical frequency of usage in published text.

180019102020
Data source: Google Books Ngram Viewer

Cite this Entry

Wordmom. (2026). Definition of En dash. In Wordmom Dictionary. Retrieved Nov 5, 2026, from https://wordmom.com/dictionary/en-dash
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