punctuation
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word punctuation. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word punctuation, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say punctuation in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word punctuation you have here. The definition of the word punctuation will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpunctuation, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin punctuātiō (“a marking with points, a writing, agreement”), from punctuō (“to mark with points, settle”). Morphologically, punctuate + -ion.
Pronunciation
Noun
punctuation (countable and uncountable, plural punctuations)
- A set of symbols and marks which are used to clarify meaning in text by separating strings of words into clauses, phrases and sentences; examples include commas, hyphens, and stops (periods).
- Different languages have different rules for punctuation.
- An act of punctuating.
Meronyms
- see an extensive list of such marks at Thesaurus:punctuation mark
Derived terms
Related terms
- apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
- curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
- square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
- colon ( : )
- comma ( , )
- dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
- ellipsis ( … )
- exclamation mark ( ! )
- fraction slash ( ⁄ )
- guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
- hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
- interpunct ( · )
- interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
- brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
- full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
- question mark ( ? )
- quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
- quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
- semicolon ( ; )
- slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
- space ( ] [ )
Translations
set of symbols
|
act
|
Further reading
- “punctuation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “punctuation”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.