punctuation

American  

[puhngk-choo-ey-shuhn] / ˌpʌŋk tʃuˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. 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.

2. the act of punctuating.

3. punctuation marks.

4. 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.

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punctuation British  

/ ˌpʌŋktjʊˈeɪʃən /

noun

1. 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

2. the symbols used for this purpose

3. the act or an instance of punctuating

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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

Buffett said those matches are friendlier than their previous spars over punctuation.

From The Wall Street Journal

When you type a question into your favorite AI chatbot, it turns it into tokens representing words, parts of words, and punctuation.

From Barron's

Missives from titans of business and politics show a striking disregard for spelling, punctuation and proper grammar.

From The Wall Street Journal

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.

From The Wall Street Journal