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In Latin script, the double hyphen ⹀ is a punctuation mark that consists of two parallel hyphens (‐). It was a development of the earlier double oblique hyphen ⸗, which developed from a Central European variant of the virgule slash, originally a form of scratch comma. Similar marks (see below) are used in other scripts.
In order to avoid it being confused with the equals sign =, the double hyphen is often shown as a double oblique hyphen in modern typography. The double hyphen is also not to be confused with two consecutive hyphens (--), which are often used to represent an em dash — or en dash – due to the limitations of typewriters and keyboards that do not have distinct hyphen and dash keys.