en

The word “en” means a printing and typography unit of measurement equal to half the width of an em, roughly the width of the letter "n" in a given typeface. In plain terms, mostly known today through "en dash" — a punctuation mark roughly the width of the letter N, used to show ranges like "pages 10–20.".

“En” is pronounced EHN (/ˈɛn/ in IPA).

Here is “en” used in a sentence: “The designer set half an en of space between the columns.”

“En” is a noun.

The word “en” dates back to around 1700 and comes from Latin. From the Latin name of the letter; the typographic sense (a unit half the width of an "em") dates to the late 18th century, by analogy with the letter M being wider than N.

“En” is a very common word in modern English.

“En” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a printing and typography unit of measurement equal to half the width of an em, roughly the width of the letter "n" in a given typeface.

Both are typographic units based on the current font size. An em equals the point size — roughly the width of a capital 'M' — while an en is exactly half an em, about the width of an 'n.' They name spaces and dashes too: an en dash is half the width of an em dash.

An en dash, half the width of an em dash, is mainly used to show ranges, such as 'pages 10–20' or '1939–1945,' where it means 'to.' It also links related terms, as in 'the London–Paris route.' It is longer than a hyphen but shorter than the em dash used to break sentences.

The name comes from typography's habit of measuring space by letter widths. An en is roughly the width of a lowercase 'n' in the current typeface, just as an em matches the wider 'M.' The units are relative, so their actual size changes with the font size being used.