punctuation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin punctuātiō (“a marking with points, a writing, agreement”), from punctuō (“to mark with points, settle”). Morphologically, punctuate +‎ -ion. Coined in the French dialogue book Orthoepia Gallica, translated by John Eliot in 1593.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

punctuation (countable and uncountable, plural punctuations)

1. A set of symbols and marks which are used to clarify meaning in text by separating strings of words into clauses, phrases and sentences; examples include commas, hyphens, and stops (periods).

   Synonym: (obsolete) distinction

   Different languages have different rules for punctuation.

2. Nikud.
   • 1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 3, page 53:

     Jeremiah ii. 34, where the meaningless אֵלֶּה ("these") of the Massoretic text should be corrected into אַלָּה or לַה‎אֱ ("oak" or "terebinth") […] The change is merely one of punctuation; the original Hebrew text remains unaffected.

3. An act of punctuating.

Meronyms

• see an extensive list of such marks at Thesaurus:punctuation mark

Derived terms

• film punctuation
• interpunctuation
• logical punctuation
• mispunctuation
• nonpunctuation
• overpunctuation
• punctuational
• punctuationism
• punctuationist
• punctuationless
• punctuation mark
• punctuation space
• repunctuation
• under-punctuation
• underpunctuation

Related terms

• point
• punctilious
• punctuate
• punctual
• punctuality

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
• square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )
• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
• full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
• quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
• semicolon ( ; )
• slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space (   )

Translations

set of symbols

• Afrikaans: punktuasie
• Albanian: pikësim (sq) m
• Arabic: عَلَامَة تَرْقِيم f (ʕalāmat tarqīm), تَرْقِيم m (tarqīm)

  Egyptian Arabic: علامة ترقيم f (ʔalamet tarqim), ترقيم m (tarqim)

• Armenian: կետադրություն (hy) (ketadrutʻyun)
• Asturian: puntuación f
• Azerbaijani: punktuasiya, durğu işarələri
• Basque: puntuazio anim
• Belarusian: пунктуа́цыя f (punktuácyja)
• Bulgarian: пунктуа́ция (bg) f (punktuácija)
• Burmese: အဖြတ်အတောက် (my) (a.hprat-a.tauk)
• Catalan: puntuació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 標點 / 标点 (zh) (biāodiǎn), 句讀 / 句读 (zh) (jùdòu)

• Czech: interpunkce f
• Danish: tegnsætning (da) c
• Dutch: interpunctie (nl)
• Esperanto: interpunkcio
• Estonian: kirjavahemärgid, vahemärgid
• Finnish: välimerkit (fi) pl
• French: ponctuation (fr) f
• Galician: puntuación (gl) f
• Georgian: პუნქტუაცია (ka) (ṗunkṭuacia)
• German: Satzzeichen (de) f, Interpunktion (de) f, Zeichensetzung (de) f
• Greek: στίξη (el) f (stíxi)

  Medieval Greek: στίξις f (stíxis)

• Gujarati: વિરામચિહ્નો (virāmcihno)
• Hindi: विराम चिह्न m (virām cihna)
• Hungarian: központozás (hu)
• Icelandic: greinarmerki (is)
• Ido: puntizado (io)
• Indonesian: tanda baca (id)
• Irish: poncaíocht (ga)
• Italian: punteggiatura (it) f, interpunzione (it) f
• Japanese: 句読点 (ja) (くとうてん, kutōten), (generic, includes diacritics) 約物 (ja) (やくもの, yakumono)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: пунктуация (puwnktuwacıya)
• Khmer: វណ្ណយុត្ត (km) (vŏənnaʼyut)
• Korean: 문장 부호(文章符號) (munjang buho), 구두점(句讀點) (ko) (gudujeom)
• Kyrgyz: пунктуация (punktuatsiya)
• Lao: ເຄື່ອງໝາຍວັກ (khư̄ang māi wak)
• Latvian: interpunkcija f
• Lithuanian: skyryba (lt) f
• Macedonian: интерпункција f (interpunkcija)
• Malay: tanda baca (ms)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maltese: punteġġjatura f
• Māori: tohutuhi
• Marathi: विरामचिन्हे (virāmcinhe)
• Norwegian: please add this translation if you can

  Bokmål: tegnsetting

  Nynorsk: please add this translation if you can

• Papiamentu: puntuashon
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: نِشانِه‌گُذاری (nešâne-gozâri), نِشانِه‌هایِ سَجاوَنْدی pl (nešâne-hâ-ye sajâvandi), عَلائِمِ نِگارِشی pl (alâ'em-e negâreši), نِشانِه‌هایِ نِگارِشی pl (nešâne-hâ-ye negâreši)

• Polish: interpunkcja (pl) f, przestankowanie n
• Portuguese: pontuação (pt) f
• Romanian: punctuație (ro) f
• Russian: пунктуа́ция (ru) f (punktuácija), зна́ки препина́ния m pl (znáki prepinánija), препина́ние (ru) n (prepinánije)
• Scottish Gaelic: pungadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: интерпункција f, пунктуација f, разгодак m

  Latin: interpunkcija (sh) f, punktuacija (sh) f, razgodak (sh) m

• Slovak: interpunkcia f
• Slovene: ločílo (sl) n, interpunkcija f
• Spanish: puntuación (es) f
• Swedish: skiljetecken (sv)
• Tagalog: palabantasan
• Tajik: гузоштани аломатҳои китобатӣ (guzoštan-i alomatho-yi kitobati), пунктуатсия (punktuatsiya)
• Tamil: நிறுத்தக்குறிகள் (niṟuttakkuṟikaḷ)
• Telugu: విరామ చిహ్నములు (virāma cihnamulu)
• Thai: เครื่องหมายวรรคตอน (th) (krʉ̂ʉang-mǎai-wák-dtɔɔn), วรรคตอน (spacing, used in Thai)
• Turkish: noktalama (tr)
• Ukrainian: пунктуа́ція f (punktuácija)
• Urdu: رُمُوزِ اَوقاف m pl (rumūz-i auqāf)
• Uzbek: punktuatsiya (uz)
• Vietnamese: chấm câu (vi)
• Welsh: atalnodi (cy)
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

act

• Finnish: välimerkitys, välimerkittäminen
• German: Zeichensetzung (de) f
• Hungarian: központozás (hu)
• Japanese: 句読法 (ja) (くとうほう, kutōhō) (punctuation rules)
• Korean: 구두법(句讀法) (ko) (gudubeop) (punctuation rules)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: ^{(please verify)} خوانشنویسش

• Tagalog: pagbabantas

Further reading

• “punctuation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “punctuation”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.