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