Et cetera

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For three letter acronym, see ETC; for the Unix directory, see /etc.

Et cetera, usually abbreviated to etc. (archaic abbreviations include &/c., &c., and &ca.) is Latin for "and the others." It is often used to represent the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions. For example:

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

(An error would be using "and etc.," which is redundant—"and and the others".)

The abbreviated versions should always be followed by a full stop (period), and it is customary, even in British English, in which there is frequently no comma before and in lists, that etc. always be preceded by a comma. Thus:

A, B, C, etc.

not:

A, B, C etc.

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.", which is completely false yet often used.

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