A LONG DASH (—) USED TO CREATE A STRONG BREAK IN A SENTENCE OR THOUGHT.
The em dash gets its name from typography itself as it's roughly the width of a capital “M”.
That’s no coincidence: in traditional typesetting, widths were often measured relative to type characters.
Unlike the hyphen or en dash, the em dash doesn’t connect or compare. It interrupts, emphasizes, or adds drama. Think of it as the punctuation equivalent of a raised eyebrow.
Its use dates back to the 18th century, when printers in English-speaking countries began using long dashes for sudden breaks or added information, a trick borrowed from classical rhetoric.
And lately, it’s having a moment. With the rise of AI-generated text, the em dash is everywhere. So much so that some writers now avoid it just to sound more human.
