A double hyphen is a rarely used punctuation mark that looks like a standard hyphen but uses two parallel dashes. It is not to be confused with a dash. It is typically used to make a word or logo appear more unique. It may also be used to indicate that a hyphen that would normally appear at the end of a sentence also appears within the word itself. The term “double hyphen” is also sometimes used to refer to a symbol in written text that is actually called a hyphen.
A double hyphen is a rarely used punctuation mark that looks like a standard hyphen but uses two parallel dashes. The symbol itself for this sign can appear horizontally as an “=” in some cases, although this can be confusing since it appears to be the same symbol used in mathematical equations for “equals”. To avoid this confusion, this symbol can also be created with a slight upward tilt. A double hyphen is not to be confused with a dash.
The use of a double hyphen is typically quite rare, as its purpose and meaning are not often considered in the English language. One of the more common uses of this symbol over a standard dash is for a word or logo to appear more unique and unusual, although it is essentially the same in meaning as a standard dash. A standard hyphen is typically used for compound words where two or more words are not completely combined but remain separated via a hyphen. Words like “part-time” and “long-term” both use a hyphen and could be written with a double hyphen like “part=time” or “long=term”.
A double hyphen may also be used in some written works to indicate that a hyphen that would normally appear at the end of a sentence also appears within the word itself. For example, if a hyphenated word like “part-time” appears at the end of a sentence without enough space for the entire word, it could be split between the end of one line and the beginning of the next. When a word is broken up in this way, a dash is typically used to indicate that it continues on the next line and is still part of the same word. In an instance where this dash aligns with an existing dash, such as a line where “part-time” has been split with “part” at the end of one line and “time” at the start of the next, a double dash could be used to indicate to the reader that both uses of a dash are relevant.
The term “double hyphen” is also sometimes used to refer to a symbol in written text that is actually called a hyphen. While a dash and dash both look quite similar, they are used to express different meanings and for different purposes. An en dash, or “en dash” because it should be the width of the letter “n”, is used to express a range such as “20-30 loaves of bread were baked today”.
There is a longer dash, called the “em line,” which is the width of the letter “m,” used to break up clauses in a sentence. For example, it can be used in place of commas in “The man came into the kitchen – thoughts of him had been elsewhere and she needed a moment to remember why he was there – before opening the oven and taking out the cookies”. This longer dash can sometimes be expressed as a sign appearing as a “–” which may be mistakenly referred to as a double dash, although it is actually a double dash or an em dash.
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