quotation mark

American

Sometimes quote mark

noun

one of the marks used to indicate the beginning and end of a quotation, in English usually shown as “ at the beginning and ” at the end, or, for a quotation within a quotation, of single marks of this kind, as “He said, ‘I will go.’ ” Frequently, especially in Great Britain, single marks are used instead of double, the latter being then used for a quotation within a quotation.

quotation mark British

noun

Also called: inverted comma. either of the punctuation marks used to begin or end a quotation, respectively “ and ” or ‘ and ’ in English printing and writing. When double marks are used, single marks indicate a quotation within a quotation, and vice versa

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of quotation mark

First recorded in 1880–85

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.

Fennell has already addressed this, noting that her film is stylized with quotation marks around the title because it’s her own vision of the book, inspired by how she imagined it as a teenager.

From Salon

The concept of being picky was born, though it was still so new a word that food marketers put it in quotation marks.

From The Wall Street Journal

Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that, in the film’s poster and its trailers, the title was bookended by quotation marks.

From Salon

I didn’t put that in quotation marks because Chomsky apparently never said it.

From Salon

I place that term in quotation marks since, as many people have said and continue to say, the version of “debate” that Kirk popularized is a wrestling match in a mud pit of logical fallacies.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023