something that makes repeated and regular interruptions or divisions

the use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phrases

the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases

The act or art of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.

The act or art of dividing sentences by points or stops; the marks used for such division.

The act or art of dividing sentences by points or marks.

The use of significant points, as comma, period, etc.

The art of marking off portions of written language by points or stops.

Now you have begun on my punctuation. – Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Albert Bigelow Paine Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. – A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs by Hubert G. Shearin Josiah H. Combs

Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of punctuation and spelling. – The Siege of the Seven Suitors by Meredith Nicholson

55 line number printed 45 Punctuation All quotation marks, single or double, are as in the original. – An anthology of German literature by Calvin Thomas

The punctuation, the use of capitals and italics, in the manuscript, characteristic of Carlyle's method of expression in print, were entirely disregarded. – The Life of Froude by Herbert Paul

In other cases, the author's original spelling and use of punctuation has been left intact. – Modern Magic by Maximilian Schele de Vere

Spelling and punctuation of this and other original material is unchanged. – Origin and Early History of the Fashion Plate by John L. Nevinson

Besides changes in capitalization and punctuation, the words, " the summits of," are inserted before " the glorious Sierra." – The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

In the spirit of that edition, the text of the Ship of Fools itself has been retained exactly as it stands, even to the punctuation. – The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 by Sebastian Brandt

Greater attention than formerly has been paid to the punctuation. – The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning by Hugh Binning

Footnote 14: Knobel knows of no other expedient by which to escape from the force of this argument, than by changing the punctuation. – Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, v. 1 by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

You will have to write out the first page of Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel; and you must do it without making any mistake either in spelling or punctuation. – Girls of the Forest by L. T. Meade

2. Printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained. – Nirvana Days by Cale Young Rice