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em
(redirected from em dash)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
em
In typography, a unit of measure equal to the width of the capital letter M in a particular font. The terms "em" and "en" are widely heard with regard to the dashes commonly found in typography, but which are not standard keyboard keys. An "em dash" (one em wide) is used to convey changes such as an abrupt break in thought, a digression or a change from one speaker to another. "En dashes" (width of letter N) are shorter and are used for ranges such as numbers and dates. Contrast with the hyphen, which is a regular text character used to separate telephone and account numbers.

Em and En Dashes in HTML
The mdash and ndash are the codes used to create em and en dashes on HTML pages, whereas the hyphen is a regular text character in HTML.

em [em]
(graphic arts)
A unit of linear measurement used in printing which is equal to the point size of the type; for example, an em in 6-point type is 6 points wide.

EM
Abbr. for “end matched.”

EM - End of Medium


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Word: To create an em dash (-), which is a long dash, press Ctrl+ Alt+- (the minus key on the numeric keypad).
An em dash is the width of a capital "M"; an en dash is the width of a capital "N.
Users can visually control the flow of text in their designs by choosing from em dash, em space, en dash, en space, 1/4 em space, optional hyphen, non-breaking hyphen, nonbreaking space, and column/frame break.
 
 
 
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