A reader asked about the difference between a minus symbol and an N-dash (thanks Tem). I had to do a bit of homework on this.
Unicode (the standard for electronically encoding text information) has separate encoding for the minus sign, hyphen and N-dash.
Below you can compare…
| Symbol | ||
| hyphen minus sign N-dash M-dash |
- − – — |
f-f f−f f–f f—f |
To look closely at the differences, use ‘Ctrl’ + your mouse wheel to zoom in/out on most browsers.
If you’d like to insert a ‘proper’ minus sign in Word, here’s how: Go to ‘insert’ / ‘symbol’ / ‘more symbols’. This opens a tool showing all of the characters for every font on your computer. It would be very hard to pick the right symbol from the map, but in the field ‘character code’ you can enter a code that finds the right one…
| Symbol | Unicode | ||
| hyphen minus sign N-dash M-dash |
- − – — |
f-f f−f f–f f—f |
002D or 2010 2212 2013 2014 |
Only an obsessive typography freak could detect whether you used a minus sign or an N-dash. Here’s how: The minus sign is a slight bit narrower and has a sliver of space between itself and the adjacent characters.
Note that the hyphen is a bit lower than the minus sign and the dashes – it looks a bit too low and too small when used in mathematical expressions.
Extra:
Here’s another obscure use for the M-dash that I didn’t mention before: When letters are uncertain or missing from a word that you are quoting or reporting about, you insert two M-dashes. For example:
“Using dashes is a bit of an ad——n [addiction?]“, said Jennifer.
Other posts about dashes:
The hyphen, dash, n-dash and m-dash
Insert an n-dash or m-dash on a web page or blog
Quickly insert an n-dash or m-dash in Microsoft Word