Dash and Hyphen Symbols Guide

Understanding the difference between a hyphen and a dash — and knowing which dash to use — is one of those small typographic details that separates polished writing from sloppy text. Unicode provides a surprising number of horizontal line characters, each with a distinct purpose, width, and set of conventions.

Quick Copy-Paste Table

The Hyphen-Minus: The ASCII Default

The hyphen-minus (U+002D, -) is the character you type when you press the minus/hyphen key on any keyboard. It is the workhorse of ASCII text and is used for three overlapping purposes: as a hyphen, as a minus sign, and as a dash substitute when proper Unicode characters are unavailable.

Because it lives in the ASCII range, every system and font renders it reliably. However, it is typographically imprecise — it is shorter than a proper minus sign and lacks the width of a true en or em dash.

When to use it: - In URLs, file names, and command-line flags (--verbose, file-name.txt) - In code and programming contexts where ASCII is preferred - As a quick substitute when typing in plain-text environments (emails, SMS) - Compound adjectives in casual writing (well-known, step-by-step)

The Hyphen (U+2010): The Typographic Upgrade

The typographic hyphen (U+2010, ‐) is the proper Unicode hyphen, distinct from the hyphen-minus. It is designed specifically for joining words and breaking long words across lines. In most body text, it looks nearly identical to the hyphen-minus but has cleaner spacing defined by the font.

When to use it: - In professionally typeset documents where character precision matters - Word processors like Microsoft Word and InDesign often insert this automatically - Hyphenated words: co‐operation, self‐reliant

Non-breaking hyphen (U+2011, ‑) works identically but instructs the renderer never to break the line at that point. Use it in phone numbers (800‑555‑0100) or hyphenated proper nouns (Spider‑Man) where a line break would look wrong.

The En Dash: Ranges and Relationships

The en dash (U+2013, –) is so named because it is approximately the width of the letter "N." It serves two primary purposes in English typography:

1. Expressing Ranges

Use an en dash between two values that represent a span — numbers, dates, times, pages:

• Pages 10–25
• Monday–Friday
• The 2010–2020 decade
• A score of 3–1

Note that there are no spaces around the en dash in ranges. The sentence reads "turn to pages 10–25," not "pages 10 – 25."

2. Compound Adjectives with Multi-Word Parts

When one element of a compound adjective is itself a compound (open compound or proper noun), use an en dash instead of a hyphen:

• A New York–London flight
• The post–World War II economy
• A Nobel Prize–winning author

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Em Dash: The Power Pause

The em dash (U+2014, —) is the widest of the common dashes, approximately the width of the letter "M." It is the most expressive punctuation mark in English prose. It can replace commas, parentheses, and colons — often with more dramatic effect.

Uses of the Em Dash

Parenthetical asides (stronger than commas, less formal than parentheses):

The solution — if you could call it that — lasted only three days.

Abrupt interruption or break in thought:

She opened the door and — nothing. Complete silence.

Introducing a list or elaboration (like a colon, but more forceful):

One thing drove his decision — money.

Attribution in pull quotes (often preceded by a horizontal bar or em dash):

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." — Steve Jobs

Spacing Conventions

Style guides disagree on spacing around em dashes:

Pick one convention and apply it consistently throughout a document.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Figure Dash (U+2012): For Numbers

The figure dash (U+2012, ‒) has the same width as a digit (0–9), making it useful for telephone numbers and other numerical sequences where visual alignment matters:

• 1‒800‒555‒0199
• ISBN: 978‒0‒306‒40615‒7

It is rarely needed in everyday writing but useful in typesetting contexts where a number range must align neatly in a table column.

The Minus Sign (U+2212): Mathematics Only

The minus sign (U+2212, −) is emphatically not the same as a hyphen-minus. It is a mathematical operator with specific spacing and height defined to align with the plus sign (+) and other arithmetic operators.

In correctly typeset mathematics: - Use − (U+2212) for subtraction: 5 − 3 = 2 - Use - (U+002D) only as a fallback in plain text or code

The minus sign is taller (sits on the midline) and slightly longer than the hyphen-minus, and good fonts align it optically with +, ×, and ÷.

In HTML and web math, prefer MathML or LaTeX rendering (via MathJax/KaTeX) for formulas. In plain text, − (−) gives you the proper minus sign.

The Horizontal Bar (U+2015)

The horizontal bar (U+2015, ―) is longer than the em dash and is used in some European languages (Greek, Japanese, Irish) to introduce dialogue — where English would use quotation marks:

― Come in, said the guard. ― I have an appointment, she answered.

It also appears in some typographic traditions as a pull-quote attribution marker and in certain mathematical notation styles.

The Hyphen Bullet (U+2043)

The hyphen bullet (U+2043, ⁃) is a specialized character for bullet lists in plain-text environments. It looks like a slightly bolder hyphen and signals to parsers and screen readers that this is a list marker rather than a compound word separator.

In HTML and rich text, use proper <ul> / <li> elements instead. The hyphen bullet is most useful in Markdown-adjacent plain-text contexts.

Developer Notes

HTML and CSS

<!-- En dash range -->
<span>Monday&ndash;Friday</span>

<!-- Em dash parenthetical -->
<p>The answer&mdash;if there is one&mdash;is elusive.</p>

<!-- Minus sign in math -->
<p>The result is &minus;42.</p>

In CSS, you can insert dashes via content in pseudo-elements:

/* Em dash before blockquote citation */
blockquote cite::before {
  content: "4A0"; /* em dash + non-breaking space */
}

Python / Programming

HYPHEN_MINUS    = "\u002D"  # Standard ASCII -
EN_DASH         = "\u2013"  # –
EM_DASH         = "\u2014"  # —
FIGURE_DASH     = "\u2012"  # ‒
MINUS_SIGN      = "\u2212"  # −
NONBREAKING_HYPHEN = "\u2011"  # ‑

# Normalise all dash variants to hyphen-minus (e.g. for slug generation)
import unicodedata
import re

def normalize_dashes(text: str) -> str:
    dash_chars = "\u2010\u2011\u2012\u2013\u2014\u2015\u2212\u2043"
    return re.sub(f"[{dash_chars}]", "-", text)

Detecting Dashes in Text

import unicodedata

def classify_dash(char: str) -> str:
    name = unicodedata.name(char, "UNKNOWN")
    category = unicodedata.category(char)  # Pd = dash punctuation
    return f"{name} (category: {category})"

print(classify_dash("–"))  # EN DASH (category: Pd)
print(classify_dash("—"))  # EM DASH (category: Pd)
print(classify_dash("−"))  # MINUS SIGN (category: Sm)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Summary: Which Dash to Use