Word.ws English Dictionary

logical punctuation

logical punctuation noun: synonym of logical quotation.

Noun

logical punctuation (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of logical quotation.
    • [S]ince at least the 1960s a common designation for that style has been "logical punctuation." ... [T]he vast majority of the legion of logical punctuators are not consciously rejecting illogical American style, or consciously imitating the British. ... [D]espite the love it gets from the masses...2011 May 12, Ben Yagoda, “The Rise of 'Logical Punctuation'. The period outside the quotation marks is not a copy error.”, in Slate, Washington, DC, US: Washington Post Company, retrieved 23 Oct 2011
    • [The American] system is inconsistent: Place commas and periods inside quotation marks, but semicolons and colons go outside. Em dashes, question marks, and exclamation points go inside or outside depending on whether they’re part of the context of the quoted material (shades of logical...2011, Mark Nichol, “Logical Punctuation Isn’t the Logical Choice”, in Daily Writing Tips, retrieved 04 Sep 2015

Examples of logical punctuation in a sentence

  • Em dashes, question marks, and exclamation points go inside or outside depending on whether they’re part of the context of the quoted material (shades of logical punctuation).2011, Mark Nichol, “Logical Punctuation Isn’t the Logical Choice”, in Daily Writing Tips, retrieved 04 Sep 2015:
  • The debate about "logical punctuation" suggests two things.2011 May 19, David Marsh, “'The British style'? 'The American way?' They are not so different”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian Media...

Synonyms of logical punctuation

Questions about logical punctuation

What does logical punctuation mean?
Logical punctuation means synonym of logical quotation.
How do you use logical punctuation in a sentence?
Em dashes, question marks, and exclamation points go inside or outside depending on whether they’re part of the context of the quoted material (shades of logical punctuation).
What part of speech is logical punctuation?
Logical punctuation is a noun.

Words near logical punctuation in the dictionary

  1. logical objectivism
  2. logical positivism
  3. logical positivisms
  4. logical positivist
  5. logical positivists
  6. logical punctuation
  7. logical quotation
  8. logical realism
  9. logical system
  10. logical systems
  11. logicalism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: logical punctuation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “logical punctuation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/logical_punctuation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.