The ampersand (&) is one of the most recognisable symbols in written English, yet most writers use it by feel rather than by rule. Everything about the & symbol, from its name to its origins to its correct use in business writing, is worth knowing properly. The rules aren't complicated, but getting them wrong can undermine an otherwise polished document.
What the symbol is actually called
The symbol is called an ampersand. It represents the word "and," and it does so in a very literal way: the character evolved from the Latin word et, which simply means "and." If you look at a cursive or italic ampersand, you can still see the "e" and "t" shapes merged together.
The name "ampersand" has an odd origin of its own. In old English schoolroom recitations, the character was placed at the end of the alphabet. Children would recite "... X, Y, Z, and per se and," meaning "... X, Y, Z, and by itself 'and.'" Over time, "and per se and" slurred into the single word "ampersand." It's one of the more entertaining etymological accidents in the English language.
A brief history of the & symbol
The ampersand is old. The earliest known version appears in Roman-era documents, dating back roughly 2,000 years. Roman scribes used a ligature of the letters "e" and "t" (from et) as a shorthand when writing quickly. The shape drifted over centuries of handwriting until the modern ampersand emerged.
By the 1st century CE, the ligature was already widespread in everyday writing. It appeared in documents, inscriptions, and manuscripts throughout the medieval period. Printers adopted it when movable type arrived in Europe in the 15th century. The form varies considerably between typefaces today: some ampersands are looping and ornate, others are blocky and minimal, but they all descend from the same Latin root.
When to use the ampersand in business writing
Business writing has reasonably clear conventions about where the ampersand fits and where it doesn't.
Use it in formal names and titles. When a company, brand, or established term uses the ampersand as part of its official name, you keep it. Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Dolce & Gabbana all use the ampersand in their official names. Swapping in "and" would be inaccurate.
Use it in tables, charts, and constrained layouts. When space is tight, the ampersand earns its place. A column header that reads "Revenue & Costs" is cleaner than "Revenue and Costs" in a narrow cell. The same logic applies to slide decks, captions, and reference lists where word count is a real constraint.
Use it in informal internal shorthand. Slack messages, quick notes, and internal memos sit in a different register from client-facing documents. An ampersand in a chat message is unremarkable. In a contract, it's a different matter.
Two contexts where the ampersand does not belong: running prose and formal documents. In a sentence, "and" is almost always the right call. Writing "The report covers sales & marketing" in a memo reads as casual in a way that might not be intentional. In legal, contractual, or regulatory writing, spell out "and" every time. Ambiguity in those documents carries real costs.
Style guides on the ampersand
The major style guides are consistent on this point. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends spelling out "and" in running text and reserving the ampersand for names and abbreviations that conventionally use it. AP style follows the same principle. Neither guide treats the ampersand as a general substitute for "and."
One practical consequence: if you're writing a title or heading, the ampersand is acceptable when it appears in an official name, but spell out "and" everywhere else. "Tips for Writing & Editing" in a heading is informal shorthand, not a style-guide-approved choice.
Common mistakes writers make
The most frequent error is treating the ampersand as a stylistic flourish. Some writers scatter & throughout their documents thinking it looks modern or concise. It doesn't read that way. It reads as inconsistent, the kind of inconsistency that signals a document wasn't proofread carefully.
A second mistake is using the ampersand mid-sentence in formal writing: "The committee reviewed the proposal & voted unanimously." That construction belongs in a tweet, not a board report.
Third, writers sometimes forget to follow a company's own conventions. If a client consistently writes their name as "Smith & Associates," you should match it. Spelling it out as "Smith and Associates" is technically fine but signals you haven't paid attention.
Getting small details like this right is part of what separates professional writing from competent writing. The same care applies to other punctuation choices, like knowing when a compound modifier needs a hyphen or how to handle possessives correctly.
Typing and encoding the ampersand
On a standard keyboard, the ampersand is Shift+7. In HTML, the character requires the entity code & to display correctly, because the raw "&" character has special meaning in markup. This matters if you write content for web pages or email systems that render HTML.
In Unicode, the ampersand sits at U+0026. Most fonts include it as a standard character, and many typefaces include alternate or stylistic ampersand variants, especially in display or serif fonts where a more ornate form adds visual interest.
The ampersand in abbreviations
A handful of common abbreviations use the ampersand by convention. "R&D" (research and development), "B&B" (bed and breakfast), and "P&L" (profit and loss) are standard in business writing and don't need to be spelled out once defined. These abbreviations are widely recognised, and the ampersand is part of the established form rather than an informal shortcut.
In these cases, the ampersand isn't casual. It's the correct character for the abbreviation, and replacing it with "and" would produce "R and D," which looks wrong to anyone familiar with the term.
The ampersand is a small symbol with a specific job. Use it where it belongs, spell out "and" everywhere else, and your writing will be cleaner for it.