How to use punctuate in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, adjective
Punctuate means to add punctuation to. Example: “That occurrence of "its" needs to be punctuated as "it's".”
Examples of punctuate by meaning
verbTo add punctuation to.
- That occurrence of "its" needs to be punctuated as "it's".
verbTo add or to interrupt at regular intervals.
- My father punctuated his tirade with thumps on the desk.
- Most soldiers would testify that the everyday experience of war is long stretches of boredom punctuated by sudden, terrifying spells of disorder.2020 October 15, Frank Pasquale, “‘Machines set loose to slaughter’: the dangerous rise of military AI”, in The Guardian
adjectivePoint-like; consisting of or marked with one or more points.
- A punctuate signal (a) and a punctuate and diffuse signal (b).2005 March 22, Tor Savidge, Charalabos Pothulakis, Microbial Imaging, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 16
More sentences with punctuate
- The early development of Perl 6 was punctuated by a series of apocalypses by Larry Wall.From the entry apocalypse
- Known as 'porous portals', they will (as the name suggests) be punctuated with holes.2024 March 20, Chris Howe, “High speed underneath the Chilterns...”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 33. From the entry porous portal
- The five fingers on each hand are punctuated continua like the nonadic nine planets.2020, John Krey, The Structure of Knowledge Using Natural Patterns, page 11. From the entry nonadic
- Soon every stop on every route was once again punctuated by rounds of 'Cheers drive!2018 June 28, Wilf Merttens, Bristol Urban Legends: The Hotwells Crocodile and Other Stories, The History Press, →ISBN. From the entry drive
- When written, it is often punctuated with an interrobang (‽ or ?!).2014, Kam-yiu S. Pang, “‘Overthrowing’ Yesterday’s ICM: (Re)focusing of Meaning in a Hong Kong Chinese (Cantonese) Constructional Idiom”…. From the entry interrobang
- These deposits are commonly punctuated by metre-scale fining-upward, medium-grained, cross-bedded sandstones, interpreted as terminal distributary channels.2014, Allard W. Martinius, editor, From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin, page 379. From the entry distributary
- He punctuated his demand with a deep thrust up CJ's hole.2010, Eric Summers, editor, Teammates, Sarasota, Fla.: StarBooks, →ISBN, page 90. From the entry pipe
- Later came an electropunk version of Hank Williams's Lovesick Blues punctuated with ska horns.2007 November 17, Jon Pareles, “Barcelona Party Boys Mix Styles and Languages for a Good-Time Electronic Vibe”, in New York Times. From the entry electropunk
- Often, the tag punctuates the "we're all in this together" theme and is topped with a laugh.2006, Stephen V. Duncan, A Guide to Screenwriting Success, page 300. From the entry tag
- Overpunctuate international proposals, even though the trend is to under punctuate in domestic correspondence.2003, Larry Newman, “International Proposals”, in Shipley Associates Proposal Guide for Business Development Professionals, 2nd edition…. From the entry overpunctuate
- We had a fine dinner, punctuated with Heidi's loud ha-has and lots of wine.1997, David Gessner, A Wild, Rank Place: One Year on Cape Cod, Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, →ISBN, page 90. From the entry ha-ha
- It seemed composed of whimperings, slitherings, and shufflings, punctuated occasionally by a raised voice in the distance.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 14. From the entry shuffling
- Regulatory and security concerns punctuate the growing need for traders to maintain custody of their assets and comply with regulators.2024 April 10, Alex Wearn, “CEXs vs. DEXs: The Future Battle Lines”, in CoinDesk. From the entry CEX
- There was a pause I didn't like, punctuated by shrieks of shrill laughter from the hombres at the bar.2016, Lawrence Winkler, “Bajada”, in Orion’s Cartwheel (Cartwheels Quadrilogy; 1), Victoria, B.C.: First Choice Books, →ISBN, page 22. From the entry hombre
- In the museum, black patches punctuate white oiled surfaces, life smudging through the daunting unintentions to quiet us for good.2016, Richard Lyons, “Montreal Poem”, in Un Poco Loco: Poems, Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Iris Press, →ISBN, page 68. From the entry unintention
- Weir punctuates things with some offbeat compings.2013, David Malvinni, Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, page 46. From the entry comping
- Whether it's a crummy hometown, a crummy job, or a crummy family, Bruce punctuates his songs with some oppressive tension.2011, Randall E. Auxier, Douglas R. Anderson, Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy: Darkness on the Edge of Truth, Open Court, →ISBN, page 197. From the entry crummy
- Silence rang in my ears, punctuated by the occasional gronk of the ravens, as they flitted about in the spruce trees.2006, Terrence Rundle West, Run of the Town, page 153. From the entry gronk
- This genial, frail, chain-smoking septuagenarian is an agreeable, good-humoured conversationalist, who frequently punctuates proceedings with hearty, coughy chuckles.2005, Julian Baggini, Jeremy Stangroom, What philosophers think, page 215. From the entry coughy
- The vocule is a punctuating and lengthening tactic .2003, Jennifer Mandelbaum, Phillip J. Glenn, Curtis D. LeBaron, Studies in Language and Social Interaction, page 396. From the entry vocule
- Distracted by the munchings and gulpings that punctuated my father's theology, I lost my place in his dialogue.2002, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Stories of an imaginary childhood, page 35. From the entry gulping
- Ulrike lived in a farm hof, and all around me were the dark blank fields punctuated by a few disparate lights.1993 May, Trevor William, “Jake's Castle”, in Harper's Magazine. From the entry hof
- Because they feel that sentences must be punctuated, students have a tendency to insert commas randomly through sentences.1985, Mamie Atkins, Instructor's Manual, Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers, Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 68. From the entry overpunctuate
- At the end, the orchestra played a somber dead march that was punctuated by harsh, chilling blows on the timpani.1983 November 22, Donal Henahan, “Musica: Sacra at Fisher Hall”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Sep 2013. From the entry dead march
- Aaron told me I punctuated my ps too much — I'm too punchy — and that I needed to soften how I spoke.2024, Minelle Mahtani, May It Have a Happy Ending, page 42. From the entry sock
- At best, words are fumbled but somewhat redeemed with an accepted frustration and shrugs, and at worst, phrases, punctuated with grimaced muddlements, simply fail.2016, Joseph Michael Sepesy, Word Dances III: Celebration. From the entry muddlement
- The whistle boomed, gulls chattered overhead, the sticky air was filled with a bilgey, hot-doggy smell, punctuated by the almost putrid sweetness of honey-roasted nuts.2006, NancyKay Shapiro, What Love Means to You People, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry hot-doggy
- Communications with the dealer diminish as resignation sets in, but periods of relative quietude are punctuated with recurrent, painful spasms of technoangst.1984 December 31, Gary B. Palmer, “Whiplash”, in InfoWorld, page 8. From the entry technoangst
- He punctuated his words with a look into my eyes that might have been read as threatening or menacing by anyone who was not on the spectrum.2022, Percival Everett, Dr. No, Influx Press (2023), page 110. From the entry spectrum
- She turned away and stalked back through the lounge, her running shoes making a squit-squit-squit sound on the tiles, punctuated by the slam of the front door.2021, Malcolm Devlin, Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land. From the entry squit
- The race was punctuated by two red flags, the first caused by a pile-up on the pit straight, the second by a high-speed crash for Lance Stroll.2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC News, archived from…. From the entry red flag
- The distorted phrasing feels almost hokey, in the vein of what we typically think of as Vegas lounge-lizard style, quick talk-sing phrasing punctuated by sustained soaring notes.2014, Tara Murtha, Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe. From the entry lounge lizard
- According to the punctuated equilibrium theory, both political actors and institutions have a tendency to over-attend to some information or policy issues and under-attend to others.2013, Raymond J. La Raja, New Directions in American Politics, →ISBN, page 52. From the entry under-attend
- Kitsch may be the only word for a sculpture consisting of several tall, vertical chrome pylons punctuated with drippy, woundlike gashes that glow with changing LED colors.2009 September 25, Roberta Smith, “In Chelsea, a Chapter in Abstract Art and Some Long Verse”, in New York Times. From the entry woundlike
- Right now spring is unfolding on woodland slopes in the south garden with a mélange of scilla, Chionodoxa luciliae and pulmonaria, punctuated by brilliant splashes of daffodils.2007 April 27, Paula Deitz, “It’s Spring in New York, Finally. So Who Needs April in Paris?”, in New York Times. From the entry pulmonaria
- Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman punctuated the day with a speech to Christians United for Israel last night, declaring that "today, we are all Israelis."July 19, 2006:, Jim VandeHei, "Congress Is Giving Israel Vote of Confidence; Both Parties Back Ally, Court Jewish Support", Washington…. From the entry today we are all
Meaning of punctuate
- verb To add punctuation to.
- verb To add or to interrupt at regular intervals.
- verb To emphasize; to stress.
Questions about punctuate in a sentence
- How do you use punctuate in a sentence?
- Punctuate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “That occurrence of "its" needs to be punctuated as "it's".”
- What is a short sentence with punctuate?
- “Weir punctuates things with some offbeat compings.”
- What does punctuate mean?
- Punctuate means to add punctuation to.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: punctuate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use punctuate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/punctuate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
