: How to typeset a missing word correctly? What is the typographically correct way to typeset a missing or left out word in a sentence? For example, "You should brush your ——— every morning!".

@Merenda852

Do you want to mark only the place where a word is missing or do you want the reader to fill in by hand writing the missing word for an exercise?


If you want the reader to fill in the missing word I would use underscore(s).
If you want to give a hint you can write one underscore for one letter.
If there should be no hint, use for example always 8 underscores to reserve enough place for the reader to fill in what is needed.
If you only want to mark missing words you can follow the answer of user @AndrewH .


Example:


"You should brush your teeth every morning!".

"You should brush your ______ every morning!". (hint number letters in word)

"You should brush your ________ every morning!". (Place for longer words too)

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@Courtney577

I found a similar result for what to do when missing a word. Except the result says to use 3-em dashes and not 2 if this was intentional.


The en dash is used in typeset material and is shorter than the em
dash, which is represented in typewritten material by two hyphens. It
is used as a replacement for a hyphen when the meaning intended is ‘up
to and including’, e.g., “1987-91,” “Monday-Saturday.” A two-em (four
hyphens) dash is used to show missing letters in a word. A three-em
(six hyphens) dash is used to show that a word is left out or that an
unknown word or number is to be supplied.


How To Use Common Punctuation Marks from dictionary.com

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