word wednesday: what the em-dash?

I've deceived you. This post is not about words. But punctuation is a good friend of words, so I think we'll be okay.

Did you know that there is such a thing as an em-dash? And that it's different from an en-dash? Which is also different from a hyphen?? What the???

Each one has many uses, but just to show you a little glimpse...

Em-dash. An em-dash (—) is the longest dash and is used to separate parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. More here.

En-dash. An en-dash (–), which is wider than a hyphen but not as long as an em-dash, has only two uses: standing in for versus (The Obama–McCain debate) and showing range (2–3 weeks). More here.


Hyphen. A hyphen (-) is used to make compound words like the pale-skinned girl. (But remember! No more hyphen for Asian Americans!) More here.