et al.

¹ American  

[et al, ahl, awl] / ɛt ˈæl, ˈɑl, ˈɔl /

abbreviation

1. and others.

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et al. ² American  

[et al, ahl, awl] / ɛt ˈæl, ˈɑl, ˈɔl /

abbreviation

1. and elsewhere.

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et al. British  

abbreviation

1. et alibi

2. et alii

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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

See Examples For:

et al.

They can be technically proficient, maybe even a little funny, but there is always an underlying cadence of the uncanny valley that I still doubt Suno v6 pro et al. or whatever has totally overcome.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

Former Disney head honcho Bob Iger, et al., owning the Lakers?

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

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

The paper, titled "Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling identifies cell types and functional variants contributing to major depression" by Anjali Chawla and Gustavo Turecki et al., was published in Nature Genetics.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2026

Jenny Lindt would be at the Spurlock building speaking with Hari et al. about their stupid winning idea.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon