# Umbrella term for punctuation marks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741 "2008-12-18T14:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/1 "2008-12-18T14:27:37Z")
Is there an umbrella term to cover the punctuation marks ‘?’ and ‘!’ (And I want to add a ‘?’ to the end of that first sentence, but it just looks so wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/2 "2008-12-18T14:30:08Z")
Yes, there is. It’s “punctuation marks.” And yes, there should be a question mark at the end of your sentence. To avoid the wrongness, I would have written it, “Is there an umbrella term to cover punctuation marks like the question mark and exclamation point?” ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/3 "2008-12-18T14:51:11Z")
> [@Chef\_Troy](#): > > Yes, there is. It’s “punctuation marks.” > > And yes, there should be a question mark at the end of your sentence. To avoid the wrongness, I would have written it, “Is there an umbrella term to cover punctuation marks like the question mark and exclamation point?” Of course there should be a question mark, but given the way I’d phrased the question, I couldn’t bring myself to put a question mark after an exclamation mark in quotes. As for calling them ‘punctuation marks’, thanks for the sugggestion, and I guess I was imprecise in my OP. Your suggestion covers a whole range of other symbols, such as comma, semi-colon, quotation marks. I’m looking for a term which refers only to question and exclamation marks. My first thought was ‘interrogative’, but that doesn’t work for the exclamation marks. ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/4 "2008-12-18T15:29:22Z")
The phrase “terminal punctuation mark” seems both appropriate and popular if you’re willing to toss the period into the mix. I doubt there’s a broadly-used term for “terminal punctuation marks, not including the period.” ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/5 "2008-12-18T15:34:08Z")
> [@Kyrie\_Eleison](#): > > The phrase “terminal punctuation mark” seems both appropriate and popular if you’re willing to toss the period into the mix. I doubt there’s a broadly-used term for “terminal punctuation marks, not including the period.” Tall terminal punctuation marks. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/6 "2008-12-18T15:39:38Z")
Aren’t they “the interrobang” when they’re used together!? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/7 "2008-12-18T19:06:41Z")
Perhaps, but an interrobang is a non-standard punctuation mark in its own right. ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/8 "2008-12-18T21:01:43Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Aren’t they “the interrobang” when they’re used together!? Not exactly – an interrobang is a single mark resembling an exclamation mark and a question mark overlapping at the dot, not just the two marks side by side. ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/9 "2008-12-18T21:02:46Z")
> [@Kyrie\_Eleison](#): > > The phrase “terminal punctuation mark” seems both appropriate and popular if you’re willing to toss the period into the mix. I doubt there’s a broadly-used term for “terminal punctuation marks, not including the period.” You’d probably have to include the ellipsis (…) as well. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/10 "2008-12-18T21:33:55Z")
> [@Chef\_Troy](#): > > You’d probably have to include the ellipsis (…) as well. But isn’t an ellipsis supposed to end with a period if it’s terminal? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/11 "2008-12-18T21:35:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But isn’t an ellipsis supposed to end with a period if it’s terminal? In that case, the ellipsis is not terminal… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/12 "2008-12-18T21:37:02Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > In that case, the ellipsis is not terminal… Actually, that was my point (that the ellipsis is not terminal), but I phrased it rather poorly, didn’t I? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/13 "2008-12-18T21:40:43Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > In that case, the ellipsis is not terminal… Just really really sick. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/14 "2008-12-18T22:22:45Z")
Going up a level of abstraction, punctuation marks in general are also logograms (aka ideograms) - symbols that convey a whole concept or whole word. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/15 "2008-12-19T05:56:57Z")
I always call them end marks. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbrella-term-for-punctuation-marks/477741/16 "2008-12-19T06:30:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But isn’t an ellipsis supposed to end with a period if it’s terminal? There are different standards. The Chicago Manual of style calls for four dots, but others don’t. What always feels weird to me is using punctuation marks after abbreviations like A.D.; that just seems a bit weird (I still use them, of course). Valete, Vox Imperatoris