et al.
1 Americanabbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
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et alibi
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et alii
Usage
What does et al. mean? Et al. is an abbreviation used to mean “and others.” It’s usually used when listing people, and it always comes at the end of the list. Et al. comes from Latin and is an abbreviation of et aliī (or variations of the phrase), literally translating as “and others.”It’s typically used in cases in which people are being listed, but there are too many (or there is not enough space) to list all of them by name. It’s commonly used in academic writing when citing a written work that has several authors. What is the difference between et al. and etc. (et cetera)? Although et cetera literally translates as “and the other,” as in “and the other things,” it’s typically used to mean “and so on” or “and so forth”—meaning something like “and similar things.”Example: The groundbreaking study was conducted by Eiseman et al.
Etymology
Origin of et al.1
< Latin et aliī (masculine plural), et alia (neuter plural)
Origin of et al.2
From Latin et alibi
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Coffin et al. stage a colorful but uninteresting clatter of random mayhem, only occasionally interrupted by an ironic wink: “We are no longer evil,” announces Goomi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Madison, Hamilton, et al. would wonder at our credulous view of human nature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
To understand how severe these losses were, Cano et al. carried out extensive field surveys of D. africanum at 76 sites across the seven main islands of the archipelago.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 12, 2025
Which is why, this election week, I’m considering my counterprogramming options — with periodic check-ins on Kornacki, King, et al., to see where the count stands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2024
In a 2006 study, Tallal et al. suggest relationships between musical training, auditory processing, language, and literary skills.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
