Word.ws English Dictionary

em-dash

em-dash is the alternative form of em dash.

Meaning of em dash

Noun

em dash (plural em dashes)

  1. The symbol (—) (used to demarcate a parenthetical thought or to indicate a break, or for emphasis); a one-em or long dash.
    • So now, no matter where it’s coming from or why, millions of people recognize the em dash as a sign of zero-effort, low-quality algorithmic slop.2025 December 3, Sam Kriss, “Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025
    Synonyms:
    em rule, m-rule, mutton dash, ChatGPT hyphen

Forms of em-dash

pluralem-dashes
alternative formem dash
alternative formemdash

Questions about em-dash

What is em-dash the alternative form of?
Em-dash is the alternative form of em dash.

Words near em-dash in the dictionary

  1. em rule
  2. em space
  3. em spaces
  4. em-
  5. em- -en
  6. em-dash
  7. em-dashes
  8. ema
  9. ema datshi
  10. EMAC
  11. emacerate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: em-dash (page history and authors); em dash (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “em-dash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/em-dash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.