punctuation

System of rules and traditions of using punctuation marks

EntityQ82622

Subclass of: semiotics
, orthography

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisting of points between the words and horizontal strokes between sections. The alphabet-based writing began with no spaces, no capitalization, no vowels, and with only a few punctuation marks, as it was mostly aimed at recording business transactions. Only with the Greek playwrights did the ends of sentences begin to be marked to help actors know when to make a pause during performances. Punctuation includes space between words and both obsolete and modern signs.

Overview

All data

47 statements · 26% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: punctuation mark
Members / parts: punctuation mark
language rule
Is the study of: semantic punctuation mark

On other databases

36 identifiers linking punctuation across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

26%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 13, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). punctuation (Q82622). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/punctuation-Q82622