Scare Quotes
Quotation marks used to flag a word as suspect, ironic, or not the writer's own.
Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to signal that the writer is using it with reservation — borrowing it, doubting it, or distancing themselves from it. They are the textual equivalent of air quotes.
Used well, scare quotes are a precise tool: 'the so-called "recovery"' tells the reader the writer disputes the word. Used poorly, they read as sneering or passive-aggressive, and most editors recommend a single, deliberate use rather than peppering them through a paragraph.
Scare quotes are also called shudder quotes, sneer quotes, or distance quotes, depending on the tradition. They are functionally distinct from quotation marks that introduce a real source.
“The company's "restructuring" left half the staff without jobs.”
Keep reading the glossary
A spoken gesture — two fingers of each hand crooked — that marks scare quotes in conversation.
The punctuation that signals direct speech or a quoted phrase — single or double, depending on locale.
Square brackets mark editorial changes inside a quotation — clarifications, edits, or [sic].
Three dots that mark words omitted from a quotation.