Punctuation · U+2014

—Em dash symbol

— is the Em dash character. It is text, not a picture — it takes the colour of the type around it and pastes into anything.

How to type it
Unicode
U+2014
Alt code
Alt+8212
HTML
—
Unicode name
Em Dash
U+2014Your font
—

01 — Origin

Where the Em dash symbol comes from

The em dash is named for its width: one em, historically the width of a capital M in the current type size. It is one of a family measured the same way — the en dash is half as wide, the hyphen shorter still — and the distinction dates back to metal type, where each was a physical block.

A break in a sentence stronger than a comma and less formal than a colon. British style usually sets it with spaces, American style without: “the answer — obvious in hindsight — was no”.

Worth knowing
Three dashes do three jobs and are not interchangeable: hyphen - joins words, en dash – spans ranges (1939–45), em dash — breaks a sentence. Using a hyphen for a range is the most common of the three mistakes.

02 — Codes

Em dash symbol codes

Copy whichever form your tool expects. The character behind them does not change.

03 — How to type

How to type — on any keyboard

Four ways, depending on what you are working in.

Windows
Hold Alt and type 8212 on the numeric keypad, then release. Without a keypad, use the Character Map app (search “charmap”).
Mac
Press Control + Command + Space to open the character viewer, then search “em dash”. Double-click to insert.
Phone
There is no shortcut on a phone keyboard. Tap the symbol at the top of this page, then long-press in any text field and choose Paste.
Web and code
In HTML write — or —. In CSS content: "\2014". Make sure the page is served as UTF-8 and the raw character works too.

04 — Font support

Will — actually show up?

We checked 147 fonts installed on a normal machine and counted how many of them contain this character. A symbol missing from a font is drawn as an empty box — the text is still correct, it just cannot be drawn.

96% 141 of 147 fonts

Safe everywhere. This one is in almost every font ever installed, including the defaults on Windows, Mac and Android.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with —

Close enough to be mistaken for it, and still a different code point every time.

06 — Related

Other typographic marks

Relatives of this character. Each has its own page with origin, typing and font coverage.

• Bullet point symbolIn 95% of system fonts

07 — Same block

Punctuation

Dashes, quotes, bullets, daggers and the marks between them.

All punctuation →

08 — FAQ

Em dash symbol — questions

How do I type the Em dash symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 8212 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Em dash”. Or just tap the symbol on this page — it goes straight to your clipboard.
What is the HTML code for —?
Write it as — or — in HTML, \2014 in CSS content, and \u2014 in JavaScript. All four produce the same character.
Is — an emoji?
No. — is a text character — it takes the colour of the text around it and works in usernames, filenames and documents. An emoji is replaced by a colour picture and is sometimes stripped by forms and systems.
Why does — show as a box on some devices?
Because that font has no drawing for this character. We checked 147 fonts on a normal machine and 141 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.