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I am kind of obsessed with the en dash (–). I find the following key to be a useful guide regarding proper use of the various dashes, hyphens, and minus signs. Each object aesthetically appears to look similar, but serves a different function:
- The hyphen (-), is used to join multiple words that function together as a single concept, also referred to as a compound word.
- The en dash (–) or "N dash", is named after the fact that it is approximately as wide as the capitalized letter "N", and is used to represent the words “to” or “through” when specifying a range.
- The em dash (—) or "M dash", is named after the fact that it is approximately as wide as the capitalized letter "M, is the longest and most versatile dash. It is used to act as a more emphatic comma, semicolon, or colon.
- The minus sign (−) or "negative sign", is the symbol used to show a negative value. This is not the same—though very close in appearance to—the en dash (–). Seen side-by-side: en dash first followed by the minus sign (– −), the minus sign is slightly higher than the en dash.
Source: https://www.wix.com/wordsmatter/blog/2020/07/hyphen-vs-dashes/