Word.ws English Dictionary

Shatner comma

Shatner comma noun: a comma placed inappropriately between words, where no pause should occur in speech.

shatner comma: a comma placed inappropriately between words, where no pause should occur in speech
Image: NBC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Shatner comma (plural Shatner commas)

  1. (humorous) A comma placed inappropriately between words, where no pause should occur in speech.
    • The document that I'm reviewing has a terminal case of Shatner Comma. Not sure, if, that's a, valid comment though. May, have, to rephrase,.2009 August 11, @Melmothulhu, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 20 Sep 2025
    • But the real laughs, for us, came with the introduction of all sorts of new commas we had never heard of before: Obviously CMS fans wanted to rename the Oxford comma the Chicago comma, which is fine. But did you know about the Shatner comma?2011 June 30, Adam Martin, “Oxford Comma's Non-Demise Brings Twitter Comma Creation Fest”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...

Examples of Shatner comma in a sentence

  • That, is, you, know, a really, fantastic, idea. […] And the Shatner comma?2011 June 30, Carolyn Kellogg, “Goodbye, Oxford comma? Hello, Shatner comma!”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times...
  • “Thanks, for, coming, here.” He spoke not with the Standard comma, the Oxford comma, the Walken comma, or the Shatner comma.2021 November 12, Axel Gearman, “Day One”, in Two Ways Out of Stockton, →ISBN:
  • Just last week, she’d had to fix the Shatner commas in one of his briefs.2025 June 3, Renée Ahdieh, “Firebreather”, in Park Avenue: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Flatiron Books, →ISBN:

Forms of Shatner comma

pluralShatner commas

Origin of Shatner comma

Named after the Canadian actor William Shatner, known for his dramatic pauses. Popularized by being featured on Urban Dictionary as the Urban Word of the Day for 20 December 2010.

Questions about Shatner comma

What does Shatner comma mean?
Shatner comma means a comma placed inappropriately between words, where no pause should occur in speech.
How do you use Shatner comma in a sentence?
That, is, you, know, a really, fantastic, idea. […] And the Shatner comma?
What part of speech is Shatner comma?
Shatner comma is a noun.
What is the plural of Shatner comma?
The plural of Shatner comma is Shatner commas.

Words near Shatner comma in the dictionary

  1. shaths
  2. Shatin
  3. Shatley
  4. Shatleys
  5. Shatner
  6. Shatner comma
  7. Shatner commas
  8. Shatneresque
  9. Shatnerian
  10. Shatnerization
  11. Shatnerizations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Shatner comma (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Shatner comma.wav.

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