A punctuation mark is one of a set of marks or signs used to clarify meaning. This is by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases.
Examples of punctuation marks include:
- & — An ampersand is used to represent conjunction (the use of the word "and").
- ' — An apostrophe indicates possession, or the omission of one or more letters from a word.
- : — A colon is used after a word that introduces a series, or an example, or an explanation.
- , — A comma used to separate words or phrases in a sentence.
- ... — An ellipsis is used to indicate that part of a sentence or sequence has been omitted.
- ! — An exclamation point is used to stress the preceding point, or to show feeling.
- - — A hyphen or dash is used to separate the parts of a compound word or noun, or between the syllables of a word when the word has to be divided at the end of a line of text.
- . — A period or full stop is used to indicate the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop, or after abbreviations of words.
- ? — A question mark is used at the end of a sentence to indicate that a question has been asked.
- " — A quotation mark (or inverted commas) are used to attribute the text enclosed within the commas to someone else.
- ; — A semicolon is used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a period.
- / — A slash is used to separate related items of information.
- ~ — A tilde is used in text to indicate the omission of a word.
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