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Concept
Dash
Summary
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the en dash , generally longer than the hyphen but shorter than the minus sign; the em dash , longer than either the en dash or the minus sign; and the horizontal bar , whose length varies across typefaces but tends to be between those of the en and em dashes.
In the early 17th century, in Okes-printed plays of William Shakespeare, dashes are attested that indicate a thinking pause, interruption, mid-speech realization, or change of subject. The dashes are variously longer (as in King Lear reprinted 1619) or composed of hyphens (as in Othello printed 1622); moreover, the dashes are often, but not always, prefixed by a comma, colon, or semicolon.
In 1733, in Jonathan Swift's On Poetry, the terms break and dash are attested for and marks:
Blot out, correct, insert, refine,
Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when Invention fails;
To scratch your Head, and bite your Nails.
Your poem finish'd, next your Care
Is needful, to transcribe it fair.
In modern Wit all printed Trash, is
Set off with num'rous Breaks⸺and Dashes—
Usage varies both within English and within other languages, but the usual conventions for the most common dashes in printed English text are these:
An (unspaced) em dash or a spaced en dash can be used to mark a break in a sentence, and a pair can be used to set off a parenthetical statement. For example:
Glitter, felt, yarn, and buttons—his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded.A flock of sparrows—some of them juveniles—alighted and sang.
Glitter, felt, yarn, and buttons - his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded.A flock of sparrows - some of them juveniles - alighted and sang.
An en dash, but not an em dash, indicates spans or differentiation, where it may replace "and", "to", or "through".
Official source
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