punctuation

The part of a language's writing system which provides clues to the way a text is organized. Early writing systems made little or no use of punctuation. Punctuation marks were first introduced by Ancient Greek and Roman authors, from around the 2nd-c BC, as an aid to reading a text aloud, and they retain some of that function in modern languages. They are primarily a visual prompt to the lexical and grammatical structure of a text, with two main functions. Some conventions organize the text into grammatical or semantic units, such as paragraphs and words (spaces), sentences and clauses (full-stop, comma, colon, semi-colon); parentheses and the dash can both substitute for commas, while quotation marks identify extracts of speech. Other conventions carry meaning of their own: the question mark identifies a sentence type, the apostrophe marks possession (John's) and contractions (I'm, must've), while the exclamation mark conveys such features of meaning as surprise.

v • d • e Punctuation
apostrophe ( ', ’ ) brackets ( ), [ ], { }, < > colon ( : ) comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒, –, —, ― ) ellipsis ( …, ... ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop/period ( . ) guillemets ( « » ) hyphen ( -, ‐ ) interpunct ( · ) question mark ( ? ) quotation marks ( "', ‘ ’, “ ” ) semicolon ( ; ) slash/solidus ( / )
Interword separation
spaces ( ) ( ) ( )
General typography
ampersand ( & ) asterisk ( * ) at ( @ ) backslash ( \ ) bullet ( • ) caret ( ^ ) currency ( ¤ ) ¢, $, €, £, ¥ dagger ( † ) ( ‡ ) degree ( ° ) inverted exclamation point (¡) inverted question mark (¿) number sign ( # ) percent and related signs ( %, ‰, ‱ ) pilcrow ( ¶ ) prime ( ′ ) section sign ( § ) tilde ( ~ ) umlaut/diaeresis ( ¨ ) underscore/understrike ( _ ) vertical/pipe/broken bar ( \|, ¦ )
Uncommon typography
asterism ( ⁂ ) lozenge ( ◊ ) interrobang ( ‽ ) irony mark ( ؟ ) reference mark ( ※ ) sarcasm mark

Punctuation is the act and the effect of punctuating, i.e., using punctuation marks.

General Punctuation Unicode.org chart (PDF)
U+	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
2000													‌	‍	‎	‏
2010	‐	‑	‒	–	—	―	‖	‗	‘	’	‚	‛	“	”	„	‟
2020	†	‡	•	‣	․	‥	…	‧			‪	‫	‬	‭	‮
2030	‰	‱	′	″	‴	‵	‶	‷	‸	‹	›	※	‼	‽	‾	‿
2040	⁀	⁁	⁂	⁃	⁄	⁅	⁆	⁇	⁈	⁉	⁊	⁋	⁌	⁍	⁎	⁏
2050	⁐	⁑	⁒	⁓	⁔	⁕	⁖	⁗	⁘	⁙	⁚	⁛	⁜	⁝	⁞
2060	⁠	⁡	⁢	⁣	⁤	⁥	⁦	⁧	⁨	⁩	⁪	⁫	⁬	⁭	⁮	⁯

Supplemental Punctuation Unicode.org chart (PDF)
U+	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
E000	⸀	⸁	⸂	⸃	⸄	⸅	⸆	⸇	⸈	⸉	⸊	⸋	⸌	⸍	⸎	⸏
E010	⸐	⸑	⸒	⸓	⸔	⸕	⸖	⸗	⸘	⸙	⸚	⸛	⸜	⸝	⸞	⸟
E020	⸠	⸡	⸢	⸣	⸤	⸥	⸦	⸧	⸨	⸩	⸪	⸫	⸬	⸭	⸮	ⸯ

punctuation

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