The difference between ‘e.g.’ and ‘i.e.’

Liz
Mar 11
2 min read

Using these two abbreviations as if they are interchangeable is a common mistake. They have distinct meanings.

Definitions

Both come from Latin:

e.g. is from exempli gratia, meaning ‘for example’;
i.e. is from id est, meaning ‘that is’.

You use ‘e.g.’ to mean ‘for example’ or ‘such as’. If you start a list with ‘e.g.’, ‘including’ or ‘such as’, you are telling the reader that the list is not complete. For example:

Tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Apple and Microsoft).
Fruit (e.g. apples, bananas and oranges).

Whereas, you use ‘i.e.’ to mean ‘that is’ or ‘in other words’:

‘Big Tech’ generally refers to the six largest tech companies in the US (i.e. Alphabet [Google], Amazon, Apple, Meta [Facebook], Microsoft, and Nvidia).
The experiment used a control group (i.e. a group that did not receive the treatment).

In the first example, ‘i.e.’ precedes a complete list (at least at the time of writing) and in the second example ‘i.e.’ introduces a clarification.

When to use ‘etc.’

Another Latin abbreviation is ‘etc.’, from et cetera, meaning ‘and other things’.

This matters for our purposes because if you start a list with ‘e.g.’, ‘including’ or ‘such as’, you cannot use ‘etc.’ as well. Choose one or the other; you don’t need both.

So, either:

Tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Apple and Microsoft).

Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc.).

but not:

Tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc.).

Things to note

Avoid using ‘etc.’ after only one item. It’s more helpful to readers if there are at least two items in the list because then they can understand the link between the examples and see how the list might continue. So:

✓ lions, tigers, etc.
x lions etc.

The abbreviations ‘e.g.’ and ‘i.e.’ both use lower-case letters, so they cannot be used to start a sentence.

It’s not polite to use ‘etc.’ in a list of people’s names. It’s better to use ‘et al.’ for people. You will probably see this most often when it’s used in citations. For example, Carter, Hitchens and Anderson (1990) would be cited in the text as Carter et al. (1990).
In formal or technical writing, it’s usually good style to use “for example” in the running text in a sentence, and “e.g.” inside brackets; or “that is” in the main sentence and “i.e.” inside brackets. For example:

Tech companies, such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.

Tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Apple and Microsoft).

‘Big Tech’ generally refers to the six largest tech companies in the US; that is, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Nvidia.

‘Big Tech’ generally refers to the six largest tech companies in the US (i.e. Alphabet [Google], Amazon, Apple, Meta [Facebook], Microsoft, and Nvidia).

These are (seemingly) small but important differences and I hope you’ve found this useful. You’ll be spotting incorrect uses of ‘e.g.’, ‘i.e.’ and ‘etc.’ everywhere now!