Chicago Footnotes and Endnotes: Formatting and Examples

In Chicago's notes-bibliography system, footnotes and endnotes are how you cite sources. A superscript number in the text points the reader to a numbered note that carries the citation, either at the bottom of the page (a footnote) or in a list at the end of the document (an endnote). This guide covers the mechanics of those notes: where the number goes, how a full note differs from a shortened note, how to punctuate each element, how to handle multiple sources and commentary, and how the 18th edition changed the rules. For the source list that usually accompanies the notes, see the companion guide to how to do a Chicago style bibliography. For the bigger picture of how Chicago's two systems fit together, see the complete Chicago Style guide.

Footnotes vs. Endnotes: What's the Difference?

The difference between a footnote and an endnote is location, and nothing else. A footnote appears at the bottom (the foot) of the same page where its superscript number appears. An endnote appears in a list titled Notes at the end of the document, or at the end of each chapter in a book. The citation content and format are exactly the same in both cases. If you know how to write a footnote, you know how to write an endnote.

The choice between them is usually made by your publisher, instructor, or discipline rather than by preference. Footnotes are convenient for the reader, who can glance down without leaving the page, which is why they dominate in the humanities and in scholarly books. Endnotes keep the page clean and uncluttered, which some publishers prefer for design reasons or when notes are long. Whatever you choose, don't mix the two in one document. Pick footnotes or endnotes and stay consistent throughout.

Both systems number notes consecutively through the document, starting at 1 and continuing straight through. You don't restart numbering on each page, and in a thesis or book you generally don't restart it in each chapter unless your publisher's house style calls for it. Word processors handle this numbering automatically when you use the built-in footnote or endnote function, and they renumber for you when you add or delete a note.

Where the Superscript Number Goes

The note number appears as a superscript in the text, placed at the end of the sentence or clause that contains the cited material. It goes after all punctuation, with one exception: it comes before a dash, not after. The number follows the closing quotation mark, the period, the comma, the colon, or the semicolon.

Here's the standard case, with the number after the period:

The map was, in effect, an argument about imperial reach.¹

And the dash exception, where the number precedes the dash:

The map made an argument about reach²—one the cartographer never stated outright.

Place the number at the end of the relevant clause or sentence, as close as possible to the material it documents, rather than mid-sentence. Attach only one note number to a given point in the text. If you need to cite several sources for the same statement, combine them into a single note rather than stacking two superscript numbers together, which is covered below.

The Full Note: First Citation of a Source

The first time you cite a source, use a full note. It contains the complete citation details, formatted differently from a bibliography entry in two ways: the author's name is in normal order (first name last name, not inverted), and the elements are separated by commas, so the note reads like a sentence. The note ends with the specific page number you're citing, not the full page range of the work.

A full note for a book looks like this:

1. Margaret Hollis, Maps of Power: Cartography and Empire (Yale University Press, 2021), 47.

Read the structure left to right: the note number, then the author in normal order, then the title in italics, then the publication information in parentheses (publisher and year, with no city in the 18th edition), then the specific page. Commas separate the elements, and the note closes with a period.

A full note for a journal article follows the same logic but adds the article title in quotation marks and the journal details:

2. James Renshaw, "The Cartographer's Dilemma," Journal of Historical Geography 48, no. 3 (2022): 215.

The page number at the end of a journal note is the specific page you're citing, not the article's full page range. That full range belongs in the bibliography entry. For the complete set of bibliography formats across every source type, see the Chicago bibliography guide.

The Shortened Note: Every Later Citation

After the first full note for a source, every subsequent citation of that same source uses a shortened note. The shortened note has just three elements: the author's last name, a short form of the title, and the page number. This keeps repeated citations compact without making the reader hunt back through the notes for the full details.

The full note above becomes this shortened note later in the document:

12. Hollis, Maps of Power, 84.

The short title keeps the key words of the original and stays in the same format as the full title: italics for a book, quotation marks for an article. "Maps of Power: Cartography and Empire" shortens to Maps of Power. "The Cartographer's Dilemma" would stay as "Cartographer's Dilemma" in quotation marks. Keep the shortened title to about four words or fewer, enough to identify the work unambiguously.

Full Note and Shortened Note Side by Side

This table shows the two note forms for the most common source types, so you can see the pattern hold across them. In every case the full note comes first in the document and the shortened note is used for all later citations of the same source.

Punctuation Inside a Note

The punctuation of a Chicago note is specific, and it's the detail writers most often get wrong. The guiding principle: a note reads like a sentence, so its elements are joined by commas, and the publication facts for a book sit inside parentheses. This is the opposite of a bibliography entry, which reads like a list of facts joined by periods.

• The note number is followed by a period and a space, then the citation begins.
• The author's name is in normal order, followed by a comma.
• A book title is italicized, with no comma before the opening parenthesis of the publication information.
• An article title is in quotation marks, with the comma placed inside the closing quotation mark.
• The publication information for a book (publisher and year) sits inside parentheses, followed by a comma, then the page number.
• The note ends with a period.

Notice where journal articles differ from books: a journal note uses a colon before the page number, not a comma, and its publication details aren't in parentheses except for the year. Compare the book note (parentheses, comma, page) with the journal note (year in parentheses, colon, page) in the examples above. Getting these two patterns straight resolves most note-punctuation errors.

Citing Multiple Sources in One Note

When a single statement in your text draws on more than one source, you don't stack multiple superscript numbers. You attach one number and put all the sources in a single note, separated by semicolons.

5. Hollis, Maps of Power, 47; Renshaw, "Cartographer's Dilemma," 215; Ruiz, "Mapping the Margins," 60.

Order the sources within the note in whatever way best serves your argument: by importance, chronologically, or in the order you discuss them. The semicolon separates each complete citation, and the note ends with a single period. This keeps the text clean, with one superscript number, while still documenting every source behind the claim.

Notes with Multiple Authors

For a source with two or three authors, name all of them in the full note, in normal order, joined by "and." For a source with four or more authors, name only the first author in the note, followed by "et al."

6. Margaret Hollis and James Renshaw, The Atlas and the Archive (Princeton University Press, 2023), 112.

7. Elena Ruiz et al., Cartographies of Power (Duke University Press, 2021), 88.

The shortened note follows the same logic: last names of two or three authors, or the first author plus "et al." for four or more. The rules for how many names to list, and where the cutoff falls between notes and the bibliography, are covered in detail in the guide to how to use et al. in citations, which handles Chicago alongside APA and MLA.

Notes Without a Bibliography

Most Chicago notes-bibliography papers include both notes and a full bibliography. But some shorter papers, and some publishers, use notes alone with no bibliography. This changes one thing: if there's no bibliography, the reader has no other place to find the full citation, so you must use a full note the first time you cite each source, and you can't rely on the bibliography to carry the complete details.

With a bibliography present, some instructors allow a shortened note even on first reference, because the full details are available at the end. Without a bibliography, always give the full note first. When you're unsure whether your paper needs a bibliography, check your assignment or your target journal's guidelines, since the requirement varies by venue and discipline.

Content Notes: Commentary, Not Just Citation

Notes in Chicago aren't only for citations. A content note (sometimes called a substantive note) adds commentary, qualification, or a cross-reference that would interrupt the flow if it sat in the main text. This is one of the reasons the humanities favor notes-bibliography: the footnote gives the writer room to think aloud about the evidence.

A content note might explain why you prefer one source's interpretation over another's, note a translation issue, point the reader to further reading, or flag a disagreement in the scholarship. It can also combine commentary with a citation in the same note. Use content notes sparingly and keep them relevant; a note that could sit comfortably in the main text usually belongs there instead. When a point genuinely interrupts the argument but the reader still needs it, the note is the right home.

Setting Up Notes in Word

You don't format Chicago notes by hand. Every major word processor inserts and numbers them automatically, and using the built-in function is what keeps your numbering correct when you revise.

1. Place your cursor at the end of the sentence or clause you're citing, after the punctuation.
2. Insert the note. In Microsoft Word, use the References tab, then Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote. Word adds the superscript number and moves your cursor to the note area.
3. Type the citation in the note area, following the full-note or shortened-note format for that source.
4. Let Word handle numbering. When you add or delete a note, Word renumbers all of them automatically, so the sequence stays consecutive without any manual work.
5. Switch between footnotes and endnotes through Word's footnote settings if your publisher changes the requirement, rather than retyping the notes.

Common Footnote and Endnote Mistakes

• Using ibid. instead of a shortened note. Chicago 18th replaced ibid. with the shortened note. Repeat the author's last name and short title every time rather than using the Latin abbreviation.
• Including the publisher's city. For works published since 1900, Chicago 18th dropped the city from book notes. "New York: Yale University Press" is now just "Yale University Press."
• Punctuating a note like a bibliography entry. Notes use commas and read like a sentence; bibliography entries use periods. Mixing the two conventions is the single most common Chicago note error.
• Putting the full page range in a note. A note cites the specific page you're referencing. The full range of an article or chapter belongs in the bibliography entry, not the note.
• Stacking multiple superscript numbers. One point in the text gets one note number. Combine multiple sources into a single note with semicolons instead.
• Restarting note numbers on each page. Notes number consecutively through the whole document. Only restart per chapter if your publisher's house style requires it.
• Mixing footnotes and endnotes. Choose one and use it throughout. A document with both is a clear formatting error.

Get Your Chicago Notes Reviewed

Note formatting rewards consistency, and consistency across dozens or hundreds of notes is exactly what's hard to hold on your own after weeks in a manuscript. A single wrong pattern, ibid. left in from an old template, a stray publisher city, a note punctuated like a bibliography entry, repeats itself throughout the document once it's in your habit. Editor World's academic editing, dissertation editing, and journal article editing services include Chicago note review at the citation, note, and document level, applying the 18th-edition rules that older templates miss. You choose your own editor by field, and a free sample edit is available before you commit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Content reviewed by the Editor World editorial team. Chicago guidance reflects The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Editor World, founded in 2010 by Patti Fisher, PhD, graduate of The Ohio State University, provides professional human-only academic, dissertation, book, and journal article editing worldwide. 100% human editing, no AI at any stage. BBB A+ accredited since 2010 with 5.0/5 Google Reviews and 5.0/5 Facebook Reviews. More than 100 million words edited for over 8,000 clients in 65+ countries. Multiple Gold and Bronze Stevie Award winner. Native English editors from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Less than 5% of applicants are accepted to the editor panel. Recommended by the Boston University Economics Department, University of San Diego, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Missouri, and more. Page last reviewed July 2026.