Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe
In academic writing, you might often see a phrase like “Tolani-Brown et al. (2015).” The short Latin expression “et al.” simply means “and others.” It’s used when referring to a group of authors without listing every name, especially when there are three or more. For example, instead of writing “Tolani-Brown, Silva, Gomez, and Lee,” a writer can say “Tolani-Brown et al.”
The phrase is pronounced /et al/ (like “pet pal”) and always includes a period after “al.” because it’s an abbreviation of the Latin word alii or alia, meaning “others.”
Et al. is just one of many Latin terms that remain common in scholarly and professional writing. Others include:
- e.g. – exempli gratia (“for example”)
- i.e. – id est (“that is” or “in other words”)
- etc. – et cetera (“and so on”)
- cf. – confer (“compare”)
- vs. – versus (“against”)
Though these terms may seem formal or confusing at first, they help writers be concise and precise. So next time you read “et al.,” you’ll know—it’s just academic shorthand for “and others.”
