comma means the punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
comma is pronounced /ˈkɒmə/.
Why “comma” is a great word
A punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ indicating a separation between elements within a sentence, such as items in a list or clauses. From Latin comma ("short clause"), from Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma, "something cut off, short clause"), from κόπτω (kóptō, "to cut"), first attested in English in the 1520s as a Latin word, nativized by the 1590s. Unlike the semicolon, which bridges complete thoughts with deliberate weight, or the period, which seals a sentence with finality, the comma is the quiet breath mid-thought, the barely perceptible lowering of a teacup onto its saucer, the slight hesitation before confession. It is the tiny, humane acknowledgment that thought is fluid and rarely arrives in a single, unbroken line.
Etymology
From Latin comma, from Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma), from κόπτω (kóptō, “to cut”).
noun
- The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of 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.
verb
- To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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