see also WRITE
- the marks that you use to divide up sentences and show meaning in writing: punctuation (noun U)
- one of the signs that you use to divide up sentences or to show meaning in writing: punctuation mark
- to use punctuation marks when you are writing: punctuate sth| PUNCTUATION MARK | NAME |
| . | full stop (AmE period) |
| , | comma |
| ; | semicolon |
| : | colon |
| ( ) | (round) brackets (AmE parentheses) |
| [ ] | (square) brackets |
| ? | question mark |
| ! | exclamation mark |
| "※¦" or '※¦' | quotation marks, inverted commas |
| ' | apostrophe |
| / | slash, oblique |
- the line ( - ) that you use to show a connection between two parts of a sentence or two sentences: dash
Are you hungry? - If not, we'll eat later.
- the line ( - ) that you use to join two words together: hyphen
duty-free ◎ a red-hot iron ◎ He's twenty-one today.
