exclamation point

American  

noun

• exclamation points
  plural

1. the sign (!) used in writing after an exclamation.

2. this mark sometimes used in writing two or more times in succession to indicate intensity of emotion, loudness, etc..

   Long live the Queen!!

3. this mark sometimes used without accompanying words in writing direct discourse to indicate a speaker's dumbfounded astonishment.

   “His wife just gave birth to quintuplets.”(!)

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exclamation point Cultural  

1. A punctuation mark (!) used after an abrupt and emphatic statement or after a command: “‘Help!’ he cried, as his boat floated toward the edge of Niagara Falls.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• exclamation points
  plural

Etymology

Origin of exclamation point

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

exclamation point

The interrobang of the subtitle is a mashup of the question mark and the exclamation point that a New York ad man tried to popularize in the 1960s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

The rally puts an exclamation point on the stock’s turnaround this month, as the narrative around how AI would affect many software stocks seems to have reversed to positive from negative.

From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026

“The Bride!” is a monster of its own making that isn’t trying to earn its exclamation point, but declaring it.

From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026

So too, perhaps, with Gyllenhaal’s telling of “The Bride!” with its visions of reckless abandon and personal reclamation — exclamation point and all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026

As I pushed the different tips onto the page, each left its own mark, either a small smiley face, a heart, an exclamation point, or, my favorite, a pair of puckered lips.

From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda