Its shape comes from joining the letters ‘e’ and ‘t’. The word ‘et’ means ‘and’ in Latin. Its name is a corruption or contraction of the phrase ‘and per se and’ (& by itself equals and).

Body text

Spell out ‘and’ unless the ampersand is part of a formal title or common initialism

Avoid ampersands in formal text as they can suggest carelessness or laziness. But use them if they are part of an official name or title, particularly for an organisation.

Jean & Dave’s Organic Smoothies recently opened a franchise store in Adelaide.

The R&D team will update us next month.

Please contact the marketing team for the brand guide & template.

References

Consider ‘&’ when citing sources with multiple authors

B Black & W Redwood, Fiscal Policy After the Credit Crunch, Bluetone Books, London, 2015.

In formal writing, ampersands are more commonly used in reference lists to help abbreviate long titles, particularly where there are multiple authors.

Tables and graphics

You can use ‘&’ when you have limited space

The ampersand can also be useful in a document where space is tight, such as in tables or the captions and labels for graphs.

See also: Endnotes, Reference lists, Shortened forms