punctuation
/ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/ noun
Forms punctuations
- noun 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). “Different languages have different rules for punctuation.”
- noun Nikud.
- noun An act of punctuating.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin punctuātiō (“a marking with points, a writing, agreement”), from punctuō (“to mark with points, settle”). Morphologically, punctuate + -ion.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act or art of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.
Etymology [Cf. F. ponctuation.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “punctuation”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details