Et cetera (in English contexts pronounced /ɛtˈsɛtərə/) is a Latin expression that means “and other things”, or “and so forth”. It is taken directly from the Latin expression which literally means “and the rest (of such things)” and is a loan-translation of the Greek “καὶ τὰ ἕτερα” (kai ta hetera; “and the other things”. The more usual Greek form is “καἱ τἁ λοιπἀ”: “and the remainder”). Et means “and”; cētera means “the rest”.

The one-word spelling “etcetera” is commonly used, and is accepted as correct by many dictionaries. It is also sometimes spelled et caetera or et cætera, and is often abbreviated to etc.. Archaic abbreviations, most commonly used in legislation, notations for mathematics or qualifications, include &c., &/c., &e., &ct., and &ca.. Note that the ampersand is a ligature of “et”.

The phrase et cetera is often used to delete the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions. For example, in the following expression…

We will need a lot of bread: wheat, granary, wholemeal, etc.

… the “etc.” stands for “and other types of bread”. It is an error to say or write “and etc.” in which the word “and” would be redundant. This would translate as “and and the rest”.

Typically, the abbreviated versions should always be followed by a full stop (period), and it is customary—even in British English where the serial comma is typically not used—that “etc.” always be preceded by a comma. Thus:

A, B, C, etc.

not:

A, B, C etc

At the end of a list “, et cetera” or “, etc.” may be indicated by “…” as in:

We need a lot of fruit: apples, bananas, oranges… for the luncheon.

At the end of a sentence it should be followed by a period as in “, et cetera.” or “, etc.” or indicated by three periods (an ellipsis) as in:

We need a lot of fruit: apples, bananas, oranges…