---
name: En dash
slug: en-dash
category: typography
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A dash about the width of the letter n, used for ranges of numbers
  and for connections between two things.
aliases:
  - name: ndash
    source: html
  - name: range dash
  - name: short dash
tags:
  - content-design
  - editorial
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - em-dash
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - non-breaking-space
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: Hyphens and dashes (Practical Typography)
    url: https://practicaltypography.com/
  - title: Typography Cheatsheet (Typewolf)
    url: https://www.typewolf.com/cheatsheet
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: writing a range of numbers or dates
---

The en dash (`U+2013`, `–`) is the middle mark of the three that share a
key, and it has jobs of its own rather than being a compromise between the other
two. It spans: `2019–2024`, `pages 44–51`, `9:00–17:30`, where it stands in for
the words *to* or *through*. It scores and opposes: `51–49`, `the Ali–Frazier
fight`. It connects two things that keep their own identity: `the London–Paris
route`, `the Bose–Einstein condensate`, `a client–server split`. That last job is
where writers most often reach for a hyphen and get a subtly different meaning,
since `London-Paris` reads as one compound name rather than as two places with
something running between them.

Two habits keep it honest. Do not mix a dash range with the words that mean the
same thing, so `from 2019 to 2024` or `2019–2024`, never `from 2019–2024`. And
do not use one where a minus sign belongs: `−` is its own character with its own
width and its own position on the line, and setting arithmetic in dashes is the
typographic equivalent of a straight quote. In numbers, pair the dash with
[tabular figures](/tabular-figures) so a column of ranges lines up.

The width is the whole naming scheme. An en is half an em, the em being the
square of the type size, so the en dash sits between the hyphen and the longest
mark in the family. In practice faces disagree: some draw the en
dash noticeably shorter than a true en and some give it generous side bearings,
which is why a hyphen and an en dash can look nearly identical in one typeface
and obviously different in another. The specimen above rules them against each
other for that reason. The third mark, and the question of whether to set an
aside with a spaced en dash or with the longer one, belongs to
[em dash](/em-dash), which also explains why this site never uses the long one
in its own prose.