punctuation

pronunciation

How to pronounce punctuation in British English: UK [ˌpʌŋktʃuˈeɪʃn] word uk audio image

How to pronounce punctuation in American English: US [ˌpʌŋktʃuˈeɪʃn] word us audio image

Noun:

something that makes repeated and regular interruptions or divisions
the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases
the use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phrases

Word Origin

punctuation: punctuation: [16] Punctuation is one of a small family of English words that go back to punctus, the past participle of Latin pungere ‘prick’ (source of English expunge [17], poignant [14], and pungent [16]). They include point, which arrived via Old French; punctilious [17] (which comes via Italian and may be related to pun) and punctual [14], both of them containing the etymological notion of ‘adherence to a precise point’; puncture [14]; punt ‘bet’; and punctuation itself, whose present-day meaning comes from the insertion of ‘points’ or dots into written texts to indicate pauses (also termed pointing from the 15th to the 19th centuries).=> expunge, poignant, point, pungent, punt

punctuation (n.): 1530s, "pointing of the psalms," from Medieval Latin punctuationem (nominative punctuatio) "a marking with points," noun of action from past participle stem of punctuare "to mark with points or dots," from Latin punctus "a prick" (see point (n.)). Meaning "system of inserting pauses in written matter" is recorded from 1660s. [P]unctuation is cold notation; it is not frustrated speech; it is typographic code. [Robert Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style," 2004]

2. Don 't get caught up in grammar and punctuation , especially excessive punctuation .

3. Punctuation marks and other possible delimiters will not determine segmentation .