I thought it's what Germans use all the time for "unter anderem". Usually, just plain old "such as" will do as a translation.

I am german, but I never even heard of it.

Support argus. It sounds plain pretentious to me (also a German native speaker). What's wrong with using 'u.a.'??

I've grown to dislike unter anderem, but I've learned to get creative with it. If you've got a list of companies/products/whatever, then you can say "such as X, Y, and Z." as suggested by tanja1.

Lately, however, all I get is texts with "unter anderem X". That's where you have to get inventive (i.e. X is one of the companies/one of the products/X is one of the methods....) within the context of your document. I do use "among others" but not very much, as it sometimes makes for a clumsy translation.

Not as clumsy as inter alia, though! I NEVER EVER use inter alia, even though I have been tempted on occasions.....like 4 a.m. when the brain cells are on vacation.

related discussion

Check out the tips for usage and comments in this thread.

"inter alia" is used in academic texts in German, in other texts it might sound pretentious, however this can be a desired effect sometimes. You should feel free to use it. I wonder whether all readers with no academic background understand would understand the expression. When in doubt use "unter anderem".

i first was astonished that inter alia is not a common expression. I am a lawyer and use it all the times in quotations. et al. is another expression which occurs often in academic texts in German.

Never heard of such a thing and i am German. Wouldn't use it, might not be understood by everybody.