"Hyphens are basically used inside words to separate their parts from each other."
"The en dash is used to indicate an interval of some sort. This might mean a range, as in “ages 10–15”, or a route, as in “Chicago–Memphis train”. Generally, the en dash thus means “to”."
The em dash is a multiple-use punctuation symbol, but it basically separates major parts of a statement, as opposite to the hyphen and the en dash, which have more “local”, separative functions.
The uses of the em dash can be classified as follows:
- abrupt change—something unexpected follows after this punctuation character
- abrupt termination, to indicate that the flow of speech ends unnaturally
- parenthetic remark—like this—which might be seen as a special case of an abrupt change followed by a return (in a sense, an abrupt change too) to the main flow of thought
- in enumerations, as alternative to a list bullet.
Source:
https://jkorpela.fi/dashes.html
A backup of the full original source is here.
hyphen
A punctuation mark (-) used in some compound words, such as self-motivation, seventy-five, and mother-in-law. A hyphen is also used to divide a word at the end of a line of type. Hyphens may appear only between syllables. Thus com-pound is properly hyphenated, but compo-und is not.
THE NEW DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL LITERACY, THIRD EDITION COPYRIGHT © 2005 BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY. PUBLISHED BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hyphen
Punctuation: dashes ( – ) and other punctuation marks
Dashes are more common in informal writing. They can be used in similar ways to commas or semi-colons. Both single and multiple dashes may be used:
Our teacher – who often gets cross when we’re late – wasn’t cross at all. No one could believe it!
Just wanted to thank you for a lovely evening – we really enjoyed it.
Brackets have a similar function to dashes. They often add extra, non-essential information:
Thriplow (pronounced ‘Triplow’) is a small village in the eastern part of England.
We use brackets around dates and page numbers in academic writing:
Heaton (1978) gives a convincing explanation of how hurricanes are formed (pages 27–32).
We often use forward slashes in internet addresses and to indicate and/or in academic references:
You can find the figures you need on www.bbc.co.uk/finance
Binks (1995/1997) has already researched this aspect of Roman history.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/punctuation
dash
A punctuation mark (—) used to indicate a sudden break in thought, to set off parenthetical material, or to take the place of such expressions as that is and namely: “He's running for reelection — if he lives until then”; “Very few people in this class — three, to be exact — have completed their projects”; “She joined the chorus for only one reason — she loves to sing.” In the last example, where the parenthetical material comes at the end of the sentence rather than in the middle, a colon could be used instead of the dash.
THE NEW DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL LITERACY, THIRD EDITION COPYRIGHT © 2005 BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY. PUBLISHED BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dash
There are at least eight different horizontal dash-like characters of varying lengths defined in Unicode. Wikipedia uses four: the hyphen (sometimes called the hyphen-minus), the minus sign, the en dash, and the em dash.
Hyphen ("-", MOS:HYPHEN) (actually the hyphen-minus character in ASCII or
Unicode character sets) are used in many ways on Wikipedia. They are the only
short, horizontal dash-like character available as a separate key on most
keyboards. They are used:
- in names, such as "Julia Louis-Dreyfus" and "Sainte-Ode",
- in compound modifiers, as in "hard-boiled egg", "small-appliance industry", and "real-valued function",
- for prefixes and suffixes, such as "mid-Atlantic" and "shell-like",
- when prefixing a capitalized word, such as "un-Christian",
- to avoid double vowels, such as "semi-independent"
- when writing out fractions like "one-third" or "three-fifths"
In some styles, minus signs are represented using an en dash instead of a minus sign or a hyphen. This is not done in Wikipedia. In math formulas a hyphen-minus codes for a minus sign, but in text − produces the minus sign (see below).
En dash ("–", MOS:ENDASH) are slightly longer than hyphens. They are used:
- in date ranges, such as 1849–1863,
- to join two names in a phrase, such as the Michelson–Morley experiment,
- in multi-part prefixes, such as "post–World War II", although for those, either a hyphen or an en dash can be used; British publications use hyphens, and American publications use en dashes.[dubious – discuss]
Spaced en dashes are also used to set aside a phrase – like this – in a
sentence; when this is done, it is preferred that a non-breaking space be used
before the en dash and a normal one after it: – .
Em dash ("—", MOS:EMDASH) are even longer and are used solely to set
aside a phrase—like this—in a sentence.
Em dashes and en dashes, when used to set off parentheticals, are interrupters, along with parentheses (round brackets) and commas;[1] the principal differences are parentheses are used to offset text of an optional or "aside" nature, commas are used to offset text that flows as an integral part of the sentence, and dashes are used to offset text in an emphasized manner.
Minus sign ("−", Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Mathematics#Minus sign) are
available for negative numbers such as −4 but can cause difficulties in sorts
and searches.
The four hyphen/dash-like characters used in Wikipedia are:
-is a hyphen-minus (ASCII 2D, Unicode 002D), normally used as a hyphen, or in math expressions as a minus sign–is an en dash (Unicode 2013).—is an em dash (Unicode 2014).−is a minus (Unicode 2212).