punctuation

/ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/

punctuation 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).

Noun

punctuation (countable and uncountable, plural punctuations)

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.
Nikud.
- 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.1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 3, page 53
An act of punctuating.

punctuation meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

punctuation in Hindi

set of symbols: विराम चिह्न virām cihna

punctuation in Tamil

set of symbols: நிறுத்தக்குறிகள் niṟuttakkuṟikaḷ

punctuation in Marathi

set of symbols: विरामचिन्हे virāmcinhe

punctuation in Urdu

set of symbols: رُمُوزِ اَوقاف rumūz-i auqāf

More languagesFewer languages

punctuation in Bengali: যতিচিহ্ন, বিরামচিহ্ন
punctuation in Telugu: విరామ చిహ్నములు virāma cihnamulu
punctuation in Malayalam: വിരാമചിഹ്നം തുടങ്ങിയ ചിഹ്നങ്ങൾ, നിർത്തടയാളമിടൽ
punctuation in Kannada: ತಡೆಗುರುತು, ವಿರಾಮ ಚಿಹ್ನೆ
punctuation in Punjabi: ਵਿਰਾਮਚਿੰਨ੍ਹ
punctuation in Gujarati: વિરામચિહ્નો virāmcihno
punctuation in Tagalog: palabantasan, pagbabantas
punctuation in Arabic: عَلَامَة تَرْقِيم ʕalāmat tarqīm, تَرْقِيم tarqīm
punctuation in Malay: tanda baca
punctuation in Indonesian: tanda baca
punctuation in Thai: เครื่องหมายวรรคตอน krʉ̂ʉang-mǎai-wák-dtɔɔn, วรรคตอน
punctuation in Vietnamese: chấm câu
punctuation in Myanmar: အဖြတ်အတောက် a.hprat-a.tauk

Examples of punctuation in a sentence

Let’s make sure we don’t forget proper punctuation, let's not let those mistakes happen again.
A strong password has a mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.
My editor is very finicky about punctuation. Every dot and comma has to be just right.

All 40 example sentences with punctuation

Forms of punctuation

plural	punctuations

Plural of punctuation: punctuations

Origin of punctuation

Borrowed from Medieval Latin punctuātiō (“a marking with points, a writing, agreement”), from punctuō (“to mark with points, settle”). Morphologically, punctuate + -ion.

Words formed from punctuation

Phrases with punctuation

Words that rhyme with punctuation

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about punctuation

What does punctuation mean?: Punctuation means 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).
What is punctuation in Hindi?: Punctuation in Hindi is विराम चिह्न (virām cihna). See Punctuation meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is punctuation?: Punctuation is a noun.
How do you pronounce punctuation?: Punctuation is pronounced /ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/.
What is the plural of punctuation?: The plural of punctuation is punctuations.

Words near punctuation in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: punctuation (page history and authors); punctuation (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); punctuation (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); punctuation (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); punctuation (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-punctuation.wav.

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