Em Dash Remover
Strip em dashes and other Unicode punctuation from any text, instantly, free, and private.
What to Remove
Em Dash Replacement
0 characters
0 characters
Everything You Need to Clean Text Punctuation
Em Dash Removal
Delete or replace the em dash (—) with nothing, a space, a hyphen, or an en dash. Choose what works for your use case.
En Dash & More
Also handles en dashes, horizontal bars, and other dash-like Unicode characters that can slip in from word processors.
Smart Quotes
Replace curly typographic quotes (“” ‘’) with straight ASCII equivalents. Essential for code, CSV, and plain-text files.
Ellipsis Cleanup
Replace the Unicode ellipsis character (…) with three regular dots (...) for maximum compatibility.
Hidden Characters
Remove non-breaking spaces (U+00A0) and zero-width characters that are invisible but cause subtle text-processing bugs.
AI Text Cleaner
AI tools like ChatGPT love em dashes and smart quotes. Paste AI-generated content here to make it look more natural.
How to Remove Em Dashes
Paste your text
Copy any text, from a document, AI tool, or website, and paste it into the input box.
Choose what to remove
Toggle on the character types you want to strip: em dashes, en dashes, smart quotes, ellipsis, hidden spaces, and more.
Pick a replacement
For em dashes, decide whether to delete them, swap for a space, a hyphen, or an en dash.
Copy and use
The cleaned text appears instantly on the right. Click 'Copy' and paste it wherever you need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an em dash?
An em dash (—) is a punctuation mark wider than a hyphen or en dash. It's used to indicate a break in thought or parenthetical information, and is named for its width (one em).
Why remove em dashes?
Em dashes are frequently inserted by AI writing tools like ChatGPT, making text sound robotic. You may also need to remove them for plain-text systems, CSV exports, or databases that don't handle special Unicode characters.
Can I replace em dashes with a hyphen?
Yes. Choose 'Replace with hyphen (-)' in the replacement options. You can also replace with a space, an en dash, or delete them entirely.
Does this work on AI-generated text?
Yes. AI tools frequently insert em dashes, smart quotes, and ellipsis characters. Paste AI-generated text here to strip those out in one click.
Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
No. All processing happens in your browser. Your text never leaves your device, no servers, no logs, no accounts required.
What's the difference between em dash and en dash?
A hyphen (-) joins words. An en dash (–) indicates ranges (2020–2024). An em dash (—) marks a dramatic pause or aside. They are distinct Unicode characters.
About This Tool
The Em Dash Remover is part of the Flip Caps suite of free text utilities. It was built to solve a real problem: AI-generated text is littered with em dashes, a pattern that signals robot-written content.
Beyond em dashes, the tool handles smart quotes, ellipsis characters, non-breaking spaces, and zero-width characters, the invisible Unicode junk that sneaks in when you copy text from PDFs, websites, or word processors. Everything runs in your browser. No account needed, no data sent, no limits.