What does "guillemet" mean?

Either of the punctuation marks « or » (or ‹ or ›), used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language, such as “ and ”.

Guillemet

Q: What is a synonym for "guillemet"?

Common synonyms include: angle quote, angle quote, chevron, chevron, double angle quotation mark, double angle quotation mark.

//ˌɡiˈmeɪ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Either of the punctuation marks « or » (or ‹ or ›), used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language, such as “ and ”.
"Guillemets, however, proved popular and remain the key method of indicating quotations in French, Arabic, Italian, Greek and many other languages."

Synonyms

All synonyms

angle quote angle quote chevron chevron double angle quotation mark double angle quotation mark

Example

More examples

"Guillemets, however, proved popular and remain the key method of indicating quotations in French, Arabic, Italian, Greek and many other languages."

Etymology

From French guillemet, diminutive form of the name Guillaume (“William”), named after French typecutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598) who supposedly invented the marks.

Related phrases

quotation mark

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.