SINCE 1828
serial comma
noun
variants:
or less commonly series comma
Definition of serial comma
: a comma used to separate the second-to-last item in a list from a final item introduced by the conjunction and or or
If you've always used the serial comma—“red, white, and blue”—its absence can look slipshod and lazy. If you were taught the more streamlined AP style—“red, white and blue”—the extra comma may seem fussy and pretentious.— Jan Freeman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3 Apr. 2011
— called also Harvard comma, Oxford comma
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The Serial Comma
Why don't they call it the Merriam-Webster comma?
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The first known use of serial comma was in 1922
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