How to Insert En Dash and Em Dash in Word

If you write, you often also have to dash — to interrupt yourself mid-thought or -sentence, for instance, or to give ranges of numbers. Find out here how to insert en dash (‘–’) and em dash (‘ — ’) in Word ⤓ for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web.

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How to Insert En Dash (–) and Em Dash ( — ) in Word

Time needed: 1 minute

To type en dash and em dash directly using a keyboard shortcut in Microsoft Word for Mac and Windows:

Position the text cursor where you want to insert the em dash or en dash character.
Here’s where: Employ the en dash (–) for giving ranges of numbers or dates and the em dash ( — ) for interjections or interrupted speech.
Whitespace: Both characters in English typically are not separated from surrounding characters with extra whitespace; they are themselves treated like a whitespace character — though alternative conventions that treat them like letters separated on both sides with whitespace do exist.
Alternative: If you want to prevent the line to break at a number range, you can replace en dash with a non-breaking hyphen in Word.
Example: “Inclination on the Gmunden tramway — one of the steeper adhesion railways to be found in Europe — reaches 90‰–100‰ (per mille).”
Press Ctrl Alt - (minus on the number keypad) for em dash in Word for Windows and Ctrl - (minus on the numeric keypad) for en dash..
Word for Mac: On a Mac, you can press Command Alt - (minus on the number keypad).
Mac native: On the Mac you are typically better off using macOS’s own key combinations for en dash and em dash.

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To insert en dash and em dash in a document using the Symbol dialog:

Put the text insertion cursor where you want to place ‘–’ or ‘ — ’.
Switch to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
Select Symbol | More Symbols… in the Symbols section using Word for Windows.
Word for Mac: Click Advanced Symbol.
Open the Special Characters tab.
Double-click En Dash to insert ‘–’ and Em Dash to insert ‘ — ’.

To add en dash or em dash using Word on the web in a desktop browser:

To input long hyphens when you edit documents with Word for Android and iOS:

Use the system keyboard to insert these characters.
Android: How to Insert En Dash and Em Dash on Android
iPhone: How to Insert En Dash and Em Dash on an iPhone
Alternative: You can copy the characters below for pasting.

Yes.

In Word on any platform, you can also paste hyphen characters copied from the table below:

En dash `–`
Em dash `—`

Two-em dash `⸺`
Three-em dash `⸻`

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(Tested with Word for Windows Version 2409–2605 and Word for Mac 16.89; first published September 2024, last updated June 2026)

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