What does "comma" mean?

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

What is a synonym for "comma"?

Common synonyms include: ampersand, angle brackets, apostrophe, boundary, braces, breath pause.

/ˈkɒmə/ noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
"No points were used by the ancient printers, excepting the colon and the period; but, after some time, a short oblique stroke, called a virgil, was introduced, which answered to the modern comma. In the fifteenth century this punctuation was improved by the famous Aldus Manutius with the typographical art in general; when he gave a better shape to the comma, added the semicolon, and assigned to the former points more proper places."
2
anglewing butterfly with a comma-shaped mark on the underside of each hind wing wordnet
3
A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark. Romanian
4
a punctuation mark (‘,’) used to indicate the separation of elements within the grammatical structure of a sentence wordnet
5
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.
"Commas (Polygonia comma) and Question Marks (Polygonia interrogationis) occur from the Gulf Coast to Canada and west to the Rockies. [...] Question Marks and Commas are handsome butterflies with burnt orange and black markings. [...] On the underside of each hind wing of the Comma is a small, distinctive silver hook that resembles a comma."

Show 4 more definitions

6
A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.
7
A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.
8
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. rhetoric
9
A brief interval. figuratively

Verb

1
To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas. rare, transitive

"In another paragraph, he put in a comma."

From Latin comma, from Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma), from κόπτω (kóptō, “I cut”).

Which vs That: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses

Use which and that with confidence in formal and everyday writing.