Virgule

//ˈvɝ.ɡjul// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A medieval punctuation mark similar to the slash ⟨/⟩ or pipe ⟨|⟩ and used as a scratch comma and caesura mark. historical, obsolete

    "Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines."

  2. 2
    a punctuation mark (‘/’) used to separate related items of information wordnet
  3. 3
    A slash, ⟨/⟩ or ⟨／⟩. dated
  4. 4
    A slash, ⟨/⟩ or ⟨／⟩.; Used to mark line breaks within quotes. dated
  5. 5
    A pipe, ⟨|⟩. dated
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  1. 6
    A pipe, ⟨|⟩.; Used to mark metrical feet. dated

Synonyms

All synonyms
scratch commaseparatrixslantslashslashsolidus

Example

More examples

"Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French virgule, from Latin virgula (“twig; scratch comma”), from virga (“rod, branch”) + -ulus (diminutive suffix). Doublet of virgula.

Related phrases

punctuation markscratch commaunsupported titles vertical line

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