Em Dash — & Dash Symbols to Copy & Paste
The em dash — (U+2014) and en dash – (U+2013) are Unicode punctuation, not ASCII. ASCII gives you only the hyphen-minus (-), so writers long approximated an em dash by typing two hyphens (--). Modern text really wants the true characters: the em dash for breaks in a sentence, the en dash for ranges like 9–5. Copy the correct one below and note how it differs from a plain hyphen.
How to type an em dash on Windows and Mac
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0151 on the numeric keypad for the em dash —, and Alt+0150 for the en dash –. In Microsoft Word, typing two hyphens between words with no spaces (word--word) autocorrects into an em dash. On a Mac, press Option+Shift+hyphen for the em dash — and Option+hyphen for the en dash –. On iOS and Android, press and hold the hyphen key on the symbols keyboard and the – and — options pop up.
Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen
These three are different lengths with different jobs. The hyphen - joins words (well-known). The en dash – marks ranges and connections (pages 10–20, the New York–London flight). The em dash — sets off a strong break in a sentence — like this — and can replace parentheses or a colon. In HTML, use — for — and – for –, or the numeric — and –. Do not use the math minus − (U+2212) as a dash; it is a separate character intended for equations and has different spacing.