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comma

/ˈkɒm.ə/

noun

Meaning

  • The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set off parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.

  • A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark.

  • Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia.

  • A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.

  • A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.

  • In Ancient Greek rhetoric, a short clause, something less than a colon, originally denoted by comma marks. In antiquity it was defined as a combination of words having no more than eight syllables in all. It was later applied to longer phrases, e.g. the Johannine comma.

  • A brief interval.

Synonyms

come,
comma-point,
scratch comma,
virgula,
virgule

verb

Meaning

  • To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas.