What Does Et Al. Mean in APA 7th Edition Citations?

Et al. means “and others.” It comes from Latin and is used to shorten a citation when a source has multiple authors. In APA 7th edition, you normally write the first author's surname followed by et al. whenever a work has three or more authors, including the first time you cite the source.

For example, an article by Morgan, Lee, and Patel published in 2024 would usually appear in text as:

• Parenthetical: (Morgan et al., 2024)
• Narrative: Morgan et al. (2024)

Those names and the year are hypothetical, used only to show the form. The rule is confirmed by the American Psychological Association's own author–date guide.

What Does “Et Al.” Stand For?

The expression is a shortened Latin phrase meaning “and others.” English-language academic writing uses it to avoid repeating a long list of contributor surnames every time the same source is mentioned.

In APA citations, et al. doesn't mean that the other authors are less important or should be removed from the source's reference-list entry. It is purely a space-saving convention for in-text citations.

There is also a punctuation detail: et is a complete Latin word, so there is no period after et. The abbreviation al. does receive a period. Thus, write et al. with a space, not et. al, et al, or etal..

Although this article sometimes uses italics to discuss the Latin expression as a term, ordinary APA in-text citations do not italicize et al.. You should normally type it in the same text style as the rest of the citation.

When to Use Et Al. in APA 7

The threshold is straightforward: count the credited authors of the specific source.

All author names and dates in this table are illustrative. For a normal two-author work, never shorten it to Morgan et al.; both surnames appear every time. For a work with three or more authors, the first-author-plus-et al. pattern generally applies from the first citation.

This is one way APA 7 differs from older advice still found in some tutorials. APA 6 often required more authors in certain first citations; APA 7's standard rule is shorter. Purdue OWL's guide to APA 7 changes explains the update.

How to Write Et Al. in Parenthetical and Narrative Citations

Parenthetical citation

When the citation appears in parentheses, write the first surname, a space, et al., a comma, and the publication year:

Research findings may vary across learning settings (Morgan et al., 2024).

The sentence is fictional, intended to demonstrate formatting. There is no comma between Morgan and et al. in a regular three-author citation, but a comma separates the author element from the year.

Narrative citation

When the source author is the grammatical subject, place the year in parentheses after the abbreviated name:

Morgan et al. (2024) describe several possible interpretations.

Again, the research statement is a formatting demonstration, not a claim about a real study. The spelling of et al. stays the same, and there is no ampersand before it.

For a two-author work, the narrative form uses and, such as Morgan and Lee (2024), whereas the parenthetical form uses &: (Morgan & Lee, 2024). This difference is independently stated in the official APA author–date citation examples.

APA Et Al. Rules for Direct Quotations

Using et al. does not change the requirement to pinpoint a direct quotation. If you quote a printed passage or paginated PDF, include an appropriate page number as part of the in-text citation:

“Exact quoted words from the real source” (Morgan et al., 2024, p. 12).

Do not use that placeholder quotation as an actual source quotation. It illustrates where the locator would go if you had verified words on page 12 of a real source.

For a paraphrase, author and year are generally sufficient: (Morgan et al., 2024). You may include a page locator for a lengthy work when it genuinely helps the reader, but that is not a universal requirement for every paraphrase. For unpaginated material, use appropriate genuine alternatives such as a paragraph or section locator when citing exact words.

Is Et Al. Used in APA 7 Reference Lists?

Normally no—not simply because an article has three, five, or fifteen authors. The rule for the reference list differs from the short-form rule used inside a paper.

• For a work with up to 20 authors, list all authors in the APA reference entry, using surnames and initials.
• For a work with 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors, then an ellipsis, followed by the final author—without an ampersand before the final name.

As an illustration, a paper written by Morgan, Lee, and Patel would begin its APA reference entry:

Morgan, A., Lee, B., & Patel, C. (2024). [Publication details must be supplied from the real source]

This is an incomplete fictional reference opening, not a citation to publish; it demonstrates how the three names remain in the bibliography even though the in-text form is (Morgan et al., 2024).

The University of Queensland APA 7 author guide shows the same 20-author versus 21-or-more division. You should always copy the real source's author order, not alphabetize its coauthors inside an entry.

What If Two APA Citations Would Both Read “Morgan et al., 2024”?

Occasionally, a paper cites two different works whose abbreviated forms would look identical. Imagine the following fictional author groups:

• Morgan, Lee, Patel, and Chen (2024)
• Morgan, Lee, Shah, and Ruiz (2024)

Both would collapse to (Morgan et al., 2024) under the ordinary three-plus rule, leaving a reader unable to tell which reference you mean.

APA makes an exception: include enough author surnames to distinguish the works. In this example:

• (Morgan, Lee, Patel, et al., 2024)
• (Morgan, Lee, Shah, et al., 2024)

Each short form now leads to a different entry. Do not reflexively add more surnames to every multi-author citation: use this longer form only when needed to prevent confusion.

A particularly subtle point is that et al. means multiple other authors. If only one name would remain hidden after spelling out distinguishing surnames, spell out the remaining author rather than using the plural abbreviation for a single contributor. Purdue OWL explicitly addresses this ambiguity exception.

Should You Italicize Et Al. or Put a Period After It?

Here is a quick punctuation comparison for APA 7:

The rules apply regardless of whether you reference a report, webpage, book, or journal article. The source type changes the detailed reference-list entry, not the ordinary author-count logic for APA in-text citations.

Common Mistakes With Et Al. in APA 7

One frequent error is to treat et al. as a way to avoid checking how many authors a source really has. If the article only lists two credited authors, use both. Another is to use et al. in the full reference instead of listing coauthors as APA requires.

A third mistake is omitting the year because the author name is already abbreviated. The year is still part of a normal APA author–date citation. If the work has no publication year, use the proper no-date notation such as (Morgan et al., n.d.) when appropriate; do not invent a date.

Finally, avoid confusing et al. with source-editor abbreviations or with an organization's acronym. A single organizational author, such as a national health institute, does not become “Health Institute et al.” just because the organization contains many staff members. The author count is based on the credited authors, not on the number of people employed there.

Conclusion

Et al. means “and others,” and APA 7 normally uses it after the first author's surname for sources with three or more authors, even on the very first citation. The correct form has a space and one period: et al. In an APA parenthetical citation, follow it with a comma and year, as in (Morgan et al., 2024).

Remember that the reference list follows different rules: short in-text citations do not mean omitted authors in the bibliography. If two sources abbreviate to the same et al. citation, add enough author names to identify each one clearly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use et al. for two authors in APA 7?

No. When a source has two credited authors, include both surnames in every ordinary in-text citation: (Morgan & Lee, 2024) or Morgan and Lee (2024). Use et al. as the normal abbreviation only for three or more authors, except when specific disambiguation rules require additional names.

Do I write et al. the first time I cite a source in APA 7?

Yes. For most works with three or more authors, APA 7 uses the first author's surname plus et al. starting with the first citation. For example, a hypothetical three-author paper could appear immediately as (Morgan et al., 2024). You do not need to spell out all three names on first mention unless an ambiguity exception applies.

Does et al. have to be italicized in APA citations?

No. In a regular APA 7 in-text citation, et al. is not italicized. Write it in ordinary text with a period after al. and no period after et. The correct example is (Morgan et al., 2024), not a version with the Latin words italicized merely because they come from Latin.

How many authors do you list in an APA 7 reference entry?

List all authors when there are 20 or fewer. For 21 or more, write the first 19 names, then an ellipsis, then the last listed author. This is different from the in-text rule, which normally shortens three-or-more-author works to FirstAuthor et al.. Do not insert et al. into a normal three-author reference-list entry.