How to type an em dash
- Windows: hold Alt, type 0151 on the numeric keypad, release. Mind the leading zero — Alt+151 without it gives you ù, courtesy of the old DOS character set.
- Mac: Option+Shift+- (the hyphen key). Plain Option+- gives the shorter en dash.
- HTML:
—or—. - Word / Google Docs: type word
--word and keep going; AutoCorrect promotes the double hyphen to an em dash. In Word,2014then Alt+X also works. - Phones: long-press the hyphen key.
Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen
Three horizontal lines, three jobs:
- Hyphen (-) joins words: well-known, twenty-one. It's the one on your keyboard.
- En dash (–, Alt+0150) spans ranges: pages 10–20, the 2024–25 season. Read it as "to".
- Em dash (—, Alt+0151) breaks a sentence — like this — to insert, interrupt, or land a point. It does the work of parentheses, commas, or a colon, with more drama.
Width is the tell: an en dash is one n wide, an em dash one m wide, the names are older than typewriters, and yes, that's really the etymology.
Spaces around it?
American style (Chicago, AP-adjacent): no spaces—closed up tight. British style often uses a spaced en dash instead – like this – for the same job. Whichever you pick, consistency beats correctness; mixing styles is the only genuinely wrong answer.
Symbol data last reviewed: July 9, 2026.