Comma - Definitions from Dictionary.com

10 results for: Comma

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

com·ma

Audio Help [kom-uh] Pronunciation Key

–noun

the sign (,), a mark of punctuation used for indicating a division in a sentence, as in setting off a word, phrase, or clause, esp. when such a division is accompanied by a slight pause or is to be noted in order to give order to the sequential elements of the sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list, to mark off thousands in numerals, to separate types or levels of information in bibliographic and other data, and, in Europe, as a decimal point.

Classical Prosody.

a.	a fragment or smaller section of a colon.

b.	the part of dactylic hexameter beginning or ending with the caesura.

c.	the caesura itself.

3.	Music. the minute, virtually unheard difference in pitch between two enharmonic tones, as G♯ and A♭.

4.	any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Polygonia comma, having a comma-shaped silver mark on the underside of each hind wing.

[Origin: 1520–30; < LL: mark of punctuation, L: division of a phrase < Gk kómma piece cut off (referring to the phrase so marked), equiv. to kop- (base of kóptein to strike, chop) + -ma n. suffix denoting result of action (with assimilation of p)

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Comma

To learn more about Comma visit Britannica.com

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

com·ma Audio Help (kŏm'ə) Pronunciation Key
n.

Grammar A punctuation mark ( , ) used to indicate a separation of ideas or of elements within the structure of a sentence.
A pause or separation; a caesura.
Any of several butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having wings with brownish coloring and irregularly notched edges.

[Latin, from Greek komma, piece cut off, short clause, from koptein, to cut.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
comma

1586, "short phrase," from L. comma, from Gk. komma "clause in a sentence," lit. "piece which is cut off," from koptein "to cut off," from PIE base *(s)kep- "to cut, split." Like colon, period, a Gk. rhetorical term for part of a sentence which has been transferred to the punctuation mark that identifies it. Used as such in Eng. as a L. word from 1530; nativized by 1599.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

comma
noun
1.	a punctuation mark (,) used to indicate the separation of elements within the grammatical structure of a sentence
2.	anglewing butterfly with a comma-shaped mark on the underside of each hind wing

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
comma [ˈkomə] noun

the punctuation mark (,) used to show a slight pause etc

Arabic:	فاصِلَه
Chinese (Simplified):	逗号
Chinese (Traditional):	逗號
Czech:	čárka
Danish:	komma
Dutch:	komma
Estonian:	koma
Finnish:	pilkku
French:	virgule
German:	das Komma
Greek:	κόμμα (γραμμ.)
Hungarian:	vessző
Icelandic:	komma
Indonesian:	tanda koma
Italian:	virgola

Japanese:	コンマ
Korean:	콤마
Latvian:	komats
Lithuanian:	kablelis
Norwegian:	komma
Polish:	przecinek
Portuguese (Brazil):	vírgula
Portuguese (Portugal):	vírgula
Romanian:	virgulă
Russian:	запятая
Slovak:	čiarka
Slovenian:	vejica
Spanish:	coma
Swedish:	komma
Turkish:	virgül

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
comma

A punctuation mark (,) used to indicate pauses and to separate elements within a sentence. “The forest abounds with oak, elm, and beech trees”; “The bassoon player was born in Roanoke, Virginia, on December 29, 1957.”

[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

Comma
COMputable MAthematics.
An ESPRIT project at KU Nijmegen.
(1994-11-30)

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

comma character
"," ASCII character 44. Common names: ITU-T: comma. Rare: ITU-T: cedilla; INTERCAL: tail.
In the C programming language, "," is an operator which evaluates its first argument (which presumably has side-effects) and then returns the value of its second argument. This is useful in "for" statements and macros.
(1995-03-10)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Comma

Ca"pon\, n. [OE. capon, chapoun, AS. cap?n (cf. F. chapon), L. capo, fr. Gr. ? akin to ? to cut, OSlav. skopiti to casrate. CF. Comma.] A castrated cock, esp. when fattened; a male chicken gelded to improve his flesh for the table. --Shak.

The merry thought of a capon. --W. Irving.

Acronym Finder - Cite This Source - Share This

COMMA

COMMA: in Acronym Finder

Browse Nearby Entries: