Editing En (typography) (section)

{{refimprove|date=March 2023}}
{{Short description|Typographic unit equal to half an em}}

An '''en''' (from English ''[[en quad|en quadrat]]'') is a [[typographic unit]], half of the width of an [[em (typography)|em]].  By definition, it is equivalent to half of the [[Body height (typography)|body height]] of the [[typeface]] (e.g., in 16-[[point (typography)|point]] type it is 8 points).<ref name="stokes">{{cite book |last1=Stokes |first1=Roy Bishop |title=Esdaile's manual of bibliography |date=2001 |page=152 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-3922-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=faqCpauRmRcC |access-date=18 March 2023}}</ref> The en is sometimes referred to as the "nut", to avoid confusion with the similar-sounding "em".<ref name="southward">{{cite book |last1=Southward |first1=John |title=Practical Printing: A Handbook to the Art of Typography |date=1911 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZ85AQAAMAAJ |access-date=18 March 2023}}</ref>

The [[Dash#En dash|en dash]] ({{char|&ndash;}}) and en [[space (punctuation)|space]] ({{char|&ensp;}}) are each one ''en'' wide. In English, the en dash is commonly used for inclusive ranges (e.g., "pages 12–17" or "August 7, 1988 – November 26, 2005"), to connect [[prefix]]es to [[Compound (linguistics)|open compound]]s (e.g., "pre–World War II"). <ref name="chicago">{{cite web |title=Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes |url=https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/HyphensEnDashesEmDashes/faq0002.html |website=Chicago Manual of Style |access-date=18 March 2023}}</ref>

The en-dash is also increasingly used to replace the [[Dash#Em dash|long dash]] ("—", also called an em dash or em rule). When using it to replace a long dash, spaces are needed either side of it – like so. This is standard practice in the [[German language]], where the [[hyphen]] is the only [[dash]] without spaces on either side ([[Newline|line break]]s are not spaces ''per se'').{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}