Et cetera

Et cetera is a Latin expression that means "and other things". It is taken directly from the Latin expression which literally means "and the rest (of such things)." Et means "and"; cetera (plural of ceterum/caeterum) means "the rest."

It is also sometimes spelled et caetera or et cætera, and is often abbreviated to etc.. Archaic abbreviations, most commonly used in legislation, notations for mathematics or qualifications, include &/c., &c., and &ca..

The phrase et cetera is often used to represent the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions. For example, in the following expression...

We will need a lot of fruit: apples, bananas, oranges, etc.

... the 'etc.' stands for 'and other types of fruit'. It is an error to say or write "and etc.," in which the word "and" would be redundant. This would translate as "and and the others".

Typically, the abbreviated versions should always be followed by a full stop (period), and it is customary—even in British English where the serial comma is typically not used—that "etc." always be preceded by a comma. Thus:

A, B, C, etc.

not:

A, B, C etc

It should be noted however that some publishing house styles (particularly in Britain) no longer require either the preceding comma or the following stop. In general, writers are advised to use the assume the traditional style is preferred unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

In some situations, an ellipsis ("…") can be a substitute for ", et cetera." when it is used at the end of a sentence, as in:

We need a lot of fruit: apples, bananas, oranges...

In lists of persons, et al. is used in place of etc. (an abbreviation of et alii, meaning "and others"). Less common is the use of et al. in lists of places (where it abbreviates et alibi, meaning "and elsewhere".)

A common misspelling of the abbreviation is "ect."; a common mispronunciation is "ex cetera."

See also