punctuation
Americannoun
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the practice or system of using certain conventional marks or characters in writing or printing in order to separate elements and make the meaning clear, as in ending a sentence or separating clauses.
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the act of punctuating.
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Biology. the sudden or accelerated extinction of some species and emergence of others, occurring only in isolated periods, as set forth in the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
noun
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the use of symbols not belonging to the alphabet of a writing system to indicate aspects of the intonation and meaning not otherwise conveyed in the written language
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the symbols used for this purpose
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the act or an instance of punctuating
Other Word Forms
- nonpunctuation noun
- punctuational adjective
- punctuative adjective
- repunctuation noun
Etymology
Origin of punctuation
First recorded in 1530–40; from Medieval Latin pūnctuātiōn- (stem of pūnctuātiō ) “a marking, pointing”; punctuate, -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tomato, brightened with a final drizzle of garlic oil, like punctuation.
From Salon
On the plane, just a few pages into the novel, I was struck by Wharton’s sly deployment of punctuation.
It did look like something I’d write to someone I’m close to, complete with a lack of punctuation and a self-deprecating LOL.
For Elizabeth McCracken, writing a novel requires attention to matters as small as punctuation and as capacious as the imagined world her characters inhabit.
“A Long Game” provides a ranking of punctuation from weakest to strongest.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
