1
general::
types of punctuation mark
apostrophe
the sign ' that is used to show that one or more letters or numbers have been left out, as in don’t , or used before ‘s’ to show that something belongs to someone or something, as in Mark’s dog
brackets
British English , parentheses AmE and BrE formal a pair of signs used for enclosing information that interrupts a sentence
colon
the sign that is used to introduce an explanation, example, quotation etc
semicolon
the sign that is used to separate words in a list, or different parts of a sentence that can be understood separately
comma
the sign , that is used to separate things in a list, or between two clauses in a sentence
hyphen
the sign – that is used to join words or syllables
dash
the sign — that is used to separate two closely related parts of a sentence, especially in more informal English
full stop, period
British English , period American English the sign . that is used to mark the end of a sentence or the short form of a word
exclamation mark, exclamation point
exclamation mark British English , exclamation point American English the sign ! that is used after a sentence or word that expresses surprise, anger, or excitement
question mark
the sign ? that is used at the end of a question
quotation marks
( also inverted commas British English ) a pair of signs ‘ and ’ that are put around words, especially to show that you are quoting what someone has said
Longman-Thesaurus