Pilcrow

//ˈpɪl.kɹəʊ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The symbol ¶.; A symbol designating the beginning of a new paragraph.

    "The pilcrow was a simple punctuation symbol used by medieval scribes to indicate the start and end of a paragraph."

  2. 2
    The symbol ¶.; A symbol designating a paragraph break.

Synonyms

All synonyms
paragraph characterparagraph markparagraph markerparagraph signparagraph symbol

Example

More examples

"The pilcrow was a simple punctuation symbol used by medieval scribes to indicate the start and end of a paragraph."

Etymology

Probably an alteration of Middle English pylcrafte, modification of Late Latin paragraphus.

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