quotation mark

American  

Sometimes quote mark

noun

1. 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.

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quotation mark British  

noun

1. 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

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Etymology

Origin of quotation mark

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

The quotation mark patterns detected by researchers could be a sign of disrespect, used to communicate irony or sarcasm to future clinical readers.

From Salon • Oct. 2, 2022

He sleeps when others are awake, curled up like a quotation mark missing its companion.

From New York Times • Oct. 12, 2020

Rooney has crafted a novel called Conversations With Friends in which not a single quotation mark appears.

From Slate • Aug. 3, 2017

“If you put something in quotation marks, you’re distancing yourself from it: ‘I’m not saying it’,” says Ruth Finnegan, anthropologist and author of Why Do We Quote?, a history of the quotation mark.

From The Guardian • Mar. 14, 2017

In Chapter X, a mismatched quotation mark was corrected before "'Twoinette's so—so blamed systematic".

From The Mistress of Bonaventure by Bindloss, Harold