Word.ws English Dictionary

virgula

UK/ˈvəːɡjʊlə/US/ˈvəɹɡjʊlə/

virgula noun: the spines of a ray.

virgula: the spines of a ray
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

virgula (plural virgulas or virgulae)

  1. (obsolete) The spines of a ray.
  2. (obsolete) The sicula of a graptolite.
  3. (obsolete) A divining or dowsing rod.
  4. (rare) Any small rod.
    Synonyms:
    stick
  5. (rare) Synonym of virgule: a punctuation mark.
    • A Point with a Virgula, call'd a Semicolon.1728, Ephraim Chambers, “Point”, in Cyclopædia
    • The full stop or, instead, a virgula, i.e. a short slanting strike (/) is used... to mark the end of a sentence or of a portion of a sentence followed by a pause.1934, Robert C. Priebsch et al., chapter X, in The German Language, volume II, page 380
    Synonyms:
    virgule
  6. (obsolete) Synonym of stem: the tail of a note.
    Synonyms:
    stem
  7. (historical, obsolete) Synonym of virga: one of the neumes of medieval musical notation.
    Synonyms:
    virga

Synonyms of virgula

Forms of virgula

pluralvirgulas
pluralvirgulae

Origin of virgula

From Latin virgula (“twig; wand; scratch comma”), from virga (“branch; rod”) + -ulus (“-ule: forming diminutives”). As a dowsing rod, via virgula divina or divinatoria. Doublet of virgule.

Questions about virgula

What does virgula mean?
Virgula means the spines of a ray.
What part of speech is virgula?
Virgula is a noun.
How do you pronounce virgula?
Virgula is pronounced /ˈvəːɡjʊlə/ (UK).
What is the plural of virgula?
The plural of virgula is virgulas.

Words near virgula in the dictionary

  1. Virgoans
  2. Virgoneza
  3. Virgos
  4. Virgouleuse
  5. Virgouleuses
  6. virgula
  7. virgula plana
  8. virgula suspensiva
  9. virgulae
  10. virgular
  11. virgulariid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: virgula (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:

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