full stop

American

noun

period.

full stop British

noun

Also called (esp US and Canadian): period. the punctuation mark (.) used at the end of a sentence that is not a question or exclamation, after abbreviations, etc

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

full stops

plural

Etymology

Origin of full stop

First recorded in 1590–1600

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.

See Examples For:

full stop

And sometimes that gaze is just discomfiting, full stop.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026

"No one should be trespassing full stop but no one should be swimming there at that time of night."

From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026

These are core financial tenets that should be followed 100% of the time, full stop.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 9, 2026

Waymo says its cars are designed to come to a full stop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025

“We knew,” her mother said, with a full stop that barricaded any further questions.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

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