Punctuation mark

A punctuation mark is one of a set of marks or signs used to clarify meaning. This is by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases.

Examples of punctuation marks include:

• & — An ampersand is used to represent conjunction (the use of the word "and").
• ' - An apostrophe indicates possession, or the omission of one or more letters from a word.
• : — A colon is used after a word that introduces a series, or an example, or an explanation.
• , — A comma used to separate words or phrases in a sentence.
• ... — An ellipsis is used to indicate that part of a sentence or sequence has been omitted.
• ! — An exclamation point is used to stress the preceding point, or to show feeling.
• - — A hyphen or dash is used to separate the parts of a compound word or noun, or between the syllables of a word when the word has to be divided at the end of a line of text.
• . — A period or full stop is used to indicate the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop, or after abbreviations of words.
• ? — A question mark is used at the end of a sentence to indicate that a question has been asked.
• " — A quotation mark (or inverted commas) are used to attribute the text enclosed within the commas to someone else.
• ; — A semicolon is used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a period.
• / — A slash is used to separate related items of information.
• ~ — A tilde is used in text to indicate the omission of a word.

See also

• Diacritic