Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks, inter-word spaces, capitalization, and indentation.
Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes (sounds) of a language nor to lexemes (words and phrases), but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading it aloud. See orthography.
In English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, “woman, without her man, is nothing,” and “woman: without her, man is nothing,” have greatly different meanings, as do “eats shoots and leaves” and “eats, shoots and leaves.”
| Symbol | Name | Description | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| ( / ) | slash/stroke | A slash or stroke, /, is a punctuation mark. It is also called an oblique, diagonal, separatrix, virgule, scratch comma, slant, or forward slash. It appears similar to a solidus or shilling mark, which is a separate character. | NA |