Keep the order
The dash only works when the entries are consecutive. Sort the list by author first, and every repeated name can be replaced.
Copy & paste · Character reference
The three-em dash (⸻): the bibliography dash
Copy the three-em dash (U+2E3B) in one click, and see exactly how it replaces a repeated author’s name in a list of works cited.
Or select it by hand
Click the box to select the character, then press Ctrl + C (⌘ + C on Mac).
- Character
- Three-em Dash
- Unicode
- U+2E3B
- HTML entity
- —
- Plain-text fallback
- -
Em Dash family
The long dashes — for asides, interruptions and full-width rules.
The three-em dash (⸻, U+2E3B) is the widest single dash in Unicode: three ems across, one character. Its only standard use is bibliographic. When two or more entries in a list of works cited share an author, a style guide may allow the author’s name to be left out of the later entries and replaced with a three-em dash, so the reader understands that the entry belongs to the name above it rather than to an unnamed author. The Chicago Manual of Style describes exactly this, and it is the one place in modern punctuation where a dash stands in for a whole word.
Because the convention belongs to typeset bibliographies, the character has the same portability problem as its two-em cousin. Unicode added U+2E3A and U+2E3B in version 6.1, and a good many system fonts still ship without a glyph for either, which is why some published style guides tell authors to write three em dashes in a row instead of using the character. Visually the two approaches are close; semantically they are not. Three separate em dashes are three characters, and a citation manager, a plagiarism check or a manuscript formatter will read them that way.
In practice you will not type this character, you will copy it: it has no keyboard shortcut on any platform and citation software inserts it for you when the author repeats. If you are cleaning a manuscript that was typeset elsewhere, the three-em dash is one of the characters that survives a copy-paste, and the em dash remover catches it inside the em dash family. If you are writing in a plain-text pipeline where the character cannot render, three em dashes or a repeated-author abbreviation are the portable alternatives.
How to type a three-em dash
Keyboard shortcuts for every platform — or skip the typing and copy the character above.
| Platform | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Any keyboard | No shortcut exists — copy it above |
| Windows (Character Map) | charmap.exe → search U+2E3B or “three-em dash” |
| Mac | Emoji & Symbols (⌃⌘Space) → search “three-em dash” |
| Google Docs | Insert → Special characters → search “three-em dash” |
| HTML / CSS | ⸻ · content: "\2E3B" |
| Citation managers | Zotero and EndNote insert the dash automatically when the author repeats |
Three-em Dash examples
What the character looks like doing its job — and what changes if you swap in a different dash.
A repeated author, Chicago style
⸻, The Craft of Punctuation (Chicago, 2019).
A run of entries by one writer
⸻, “Dashes Reconsidered,” 44–61.
A translated or edited volume
⸻, ed., Essays on Typography (Oxford, 2001).
A damaged or illegible name
⸻, A History of the Comma (London, 1897).
The three-em dash in a works-cited list
Three entries by one author, two of them abbreviated. Every dash below is the single character U+2E3B, not three typed em dashes.
Whitfield, Marcus. The Craft of Punctuation. Chicago: Rowan Press, 2019.
⸻. “Dashes Reconsidered.” Journal of Typography 12, no. 3 (2021): 44–61.
⸻, ed. Essays on Typography. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
Keep the punctuation
The dash takes the period that would have followed the name, then a space: “⸻. “Dashes Reconsidered.”” — not “⸻ ,” or a bare dash.
Check the guide first
Chicago allows the abbreviation; APA prefers the name repeated in full. Follow the guide your publication uses, not the one you learned first.
Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen
Three characters that look like each other and never behave the same way. Copy the one you need, or read the full reference for each.
Questions
What is a three-em dash used for?
Almost exclusively for repeated authors in a bibliography or works-cited list. Where two consecutive entries share an author, the later entries replace the name with a three-em dash, which tells the reader the entry belongs to the name above.
How do I type a three-em dash?
There is no keyboard shortcut for it on any platform. Copy it from the button above, insert it from the Character Map on Windows or Emoji & Symbols on macOS by searching U+2E3B, or let a citation manager insert it — Zotero and EndNote both handle the convention automatically.
Can I just type three em dashes instead?
Usually yes, and many style guides recommend it precisely because font support for U+2E3B is unreliable. There is one semantic difference: the single character is one unit, while “———” is three characters, which a citation manager or a word count will treat separately.
Is the three-em dash the same as an ellipsis?
No. An ellipsis marks omitted words in a quotation and is set as three dots. The three-em dash substitutes for a repeated name in a list of works and is a line, not dots — the two conventions are not interchangeable.
Do APA and MLA use the three-em dash?
Chicago and the Oxford style guides describe it for repeated authors. APA tells writers to repeat the author’s name in full, so the dash does not appear in an APA reference list — always check the guide your publication follows before using it.
Why does the three-em dash render as a box on my screen?
The font lacks a glyph for U+2E3B, so the renderer shows a missing-glyph box. Type three em dashes instead if the document has to display correctly on machines you do not control.
Cleaning up a manuscript?
Paste the reference list and the em dash remover clears three-em dashes, two-em dashes and ordinary em dashes in one pass.
Remove every em dash