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Glite Dictionary
et al.

et al.

122 5.6
Put after a name to mean 'and others', often in academic writing
  • adverb
  • /ɛt æl/
  • Formal
: y otros
  • A more detailed breakdown of respondents within sectors is available in the full report (Kramer et al. 2010).
  • et al. 2005
  • et al. (2008
  • et al. (2001

And so like Aristotle ET al, they took all the clues in and they came up with a model that was wrong, but was consistent with what they observed.

Examples

  • Similar to Caverly et al. (2004), Shore et al. (2004) contextualized basic skills instruction in college course content.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Clearly, as I've showed you, the Douglas ET al Test fails.

  • What Fabozzi ET al said is that the the hypothesis has informed a lot of regulation.

  • It's pretty clear that Groening et al. had no clue what real weights look like on real people!

    Blog text (3)

  • The biggest reason that Scarborough et al. trash Silver is their own innumeracy.

    Blog text (2)

  • In this study, their drug use patterns reflect those of White gay men (Fendrich et al., 2003; Stall et al., 2001).

    Academic text (2008)

  • Furthermore, the training undertaken by the ULRs themselves would augment these figures (Stuart et al., 2010).

    Academic text (2011)

  • Benjamin Barsdell et al. and Christopher Fluke et al. have investigated the applicability of GPUs to astronomy.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Services from oyster reefs and oyster aquaculture have recently been examined extensively (Coen et al. 2007, NRC 2010).

    Academic text (2011)

  • In addition to the characteristics identified by Knoll et al., all future family support programs should:

Synonyms

et alii
vset al.
  • Formal
1 8.2

Used after a name to show other people are included in academic writing

is the commonly abbreviated neutral form used after a name
et aliae
vset al.
  • Formal
9.9

Shows there are other women authors listed with a name in a reference list

is the neutral or abbreviated form used regardless of gender

Surface Forms

et al. positive

Morphology

et + al.

Although 'et al.' is a Latin abbreviation rather than native English words, its constituents literally mean 'and' + 'others', so a learner who knows those parts can directly derive the meaning 'and others'. This is a compositional, cross-linguistically common formula (e.g. Spanish 'y otros') frequently used in academic contexts, so it is immediately interpretable when the constituents are known.

Etymology

Et al. is a short form that comes from the Latin words et and al., which mean 'and others'. Writers put et al. after a name to save space and show there are more people without writing all their names, so it means 'and others' in formal writing.