punctuation Noun
1. the use of symbols, such as commas, to indicate speech patterns and meaning not otherwise shown by the written language
2. the symbols used for this purpose
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. | punctuation - something that makes repeated and regular interruptions or divisionsbreak, interruption - some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity; "the telephone is an annoying interruption"; "there was a break in the action when a player was hurt" |
| 2. | punctuation - the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrasesmark - a written or printed symbol (as for punctuation); "his answer was just a punctuation mark" ampersand - a punctuation mark (&) used to represent conjunction (and) apostrophe - the mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word brace - either of two punctuation marks ({ or }) used to enclose textual material angle bracket, bracket - either of two punctuation marks (`<' or `>') used in computer programming and sometimes used to enclose textual material colon - a punctuation mark (:) used after a word introducing a series or an example or an explanation (or after the salutation of a business letter) comma - a punctuation mark (,) used to indicate the separation of elements within the grammatical structure of a sentence hyphen, dash - a punctuation mark (-) used between parts of a compound word or between the syllables of a word when the word is divided at the end of a line of text parenthesis - either of two punctuation marks (or) used to enclose textual material full point, full stop, period, stop, point - a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations; "in England they call a period a stop" semicolon - a punctuation mark (`;') used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a period swung dash - a punctuation mark used in text to indicate the omission of a word |
| 3. | punctuation - the use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phraseshyphenation - connecting syllables and words by hyphens grouping - the activity of putting things together in groups |
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