comma

com·ma | \ ˈkä-mə

How to pronounce comma (audio)

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Definition of comma

1 : a punctuation mark, used especially as a mark of separation within the sentence

2 : pause, interval

3 : any of several nymphalid butterflies (genus Polygonia) with a silvery comma-shaped mark on the underside of the hind wings

Examples of comma in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The Brexit 50p coin is missing an oxford comma and should be boycotted by all literate people. — Anna Russell, The New Yorker, "Mourning Brexit with the Mayor of London," 1 Feb. 2020 That’s me who sometimes misses a comma or chooses colloquialisms over grammar. — Hannah Rimm, refinery29.com, "Hi, My Name Is Hannah & I Am The Keeper Of The US Money Diaries," 12 Feb. 2020 There are 61 letters, 16 spaces, a comma and a period. — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, "How to Zip or Unzip a File (And Why That's Even a Thing)," 18 Jan. 2020 Google To adjust Gboard, the Google keyboard on an Android device, navigate to settings—on the keyboard, long-press the comma and the gear (settings) icon should pop up. — Matthew De Silva, Quartz, "How to teach your phone to curse," 17 Dec. 2019 Scenes flit back and forth through time and the story comes out like a stream of consciousness — a river of text containing only commas and semi-colons, but no periods. — Jerald Pierce, chicagotribune.com, "Review: 'Good Grief’ is a very personal solo show about a woman’s pain and loss — and may also be about yours," 8 Dec. 2019 Part of the tentacle rests on a cake of black lentils, set off with dots of avocado puree, which plays the role of a comma between bites of seafood. — Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, "Seek and ye shall find plenty of excuses to explore Seven Reasons," 11 Sep. 2019 The cloud pattern consists of a large circulation of low clouds with a comma-shape convective band well to the east of the circulation. — Richard Tribou, orlandosentinel.com, "Tropical Storm Nestor nears Florida landfall, lashing state with clusters of storms," 19 Oct. 2019 The discovery of new fossils, of comma shrimp species and of the long-extinct Callichimaera perplexa, forced evolutionary biologists to redefine the crab. — Rafil Kroll-zaidi, Harper's magazine, "Findings," 24 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'comma.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Learn More about comma

Dictionary Entries near comma

comma butterfly

comma ditonicum

Statistics for comma

Cite this Entry

“Comma.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comma. Accessed 7 Jun. 2020.

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