! point

Exclamation mark
apostrophe  '
brackets [ ]  ( )  { }  ⟨ ⟩
colon :
comma ,  ،  
dash ‒  –  —  ―
ellipsis  ...  . . .      
exclamation mark !
full stop, period .
guillemets ‹ ›  « »
hyphen-minus -
question mark ?
quotation marks ‘ ’  “ ”  ' '  " "
semicolon ;
slash, stroke, solidus /    
Word dividers
interpunct ·
General typography
ampersand &
asterisk *
at sign @
backslash \
basis point
caret ^
dagger † ‡ ⹋
degree °
ditto mark ” 〃
equals sign =
inverted exclamation mark ¡
inverted question mark ¿
komejirushi, kome, reference mark
multiplication sign ×
number sign, pound, hash #
numero sign
obelus ÷
ordinal indicator º ª
percent, per mil % ‰
plus, minus + −
plus-minus, minus-plus ± ∓
section sign §
tilde ~
underscore, understrike _
vertical bar, pipe, broken bar |    ¦
Intellectual property
copyright ©
copyleft 🄯
sound-recording copyright
registered trademark ®
service mark
currency sign ¤

؋฿¢$֏ƒ£元 圆 圓 ¥

Uncommon typography
fleuron, hedera
index, fist
irony punctuation
In other scripts

The exclamation mark, also sometimes referred to as the exclamation point in American English, is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume (shouting), or to show emphasis, and often marks the end of a sentence, for example: "Watch out!" Similarly, a bare exclamation mark (with nothing before or after) is often used in warning signs.

Other uses include:





Slang and other names for the exclamation mark[]




The exclamation mark is common to languages using the Latin alphabet, although usage varies slightly between languages. It has also been adopted in languages written in other scripts, such as Greek, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Devanagari.


A sentence ending in an exclamation mark may be an exclamation (such as "Wow!", "Boo!"), or an imperative ("Stop!"), or may indicate astonishment or surprise: "They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Exclamation marks are occasionally placed mid-sentence with a function similar to a comma, for dramatic effect, although this usage is obsolete: "On the walk, oh! there was a frightful noise."[12]



Overly frequent use of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, for it distracts the reader and devalues the mark's significance.[15][16]




Several studies have shown that women use exclamation marks more than men do, and one study suggests that, in addition to other uses, exclamation marks may also function as markers of friendly interaction, for example, by making "Hi!" or "Good luck!" seem friendlier than simply "Hi." or "Good luck." (with periods).[18]

In English writing and often subtitles, a (!) symbol (an exclamation mark within parentheses) implies that a character has made an obviously sarcastic comment e.g.: "Ooh, a sarcasm detector. That's a really useful invention(!)"[19] It also is used to indicate surprise at one's own experience or statement.


In French, next to marking exclamations or indicating astonishment, the exclamation mark is also commonly used to mark orders or requests: Viens ici ! (English: 'Come here!'). A space (petit espace) is used between the last word and the exclamation mark in European French, but not in Canadian French. One can also combine an exclamation mark with a question mark at the end of a sentence where appropriate.




Cantonese has not historically used exclamation marks.[citation needed] Usage of exclamation marks is common in written Mandarin and in some Yue speaking regions.[citation needed] The Canton and Hong Kong regions, however, generally refused to accept the exclamation mark as it was seen as carrying with it unnecessary and confusing Western connotations; however, an exclamation mark, including in some written representations of colloquy in Cantonese, can be used informally to indicate strong feeling. For example, to represent a response of someone surprised by a gift, one could write: "谢谢!" (xiè xie!, "thanks!").


In Modern Greek, the exclamation mark (Θαυμαστικό, thavmastikó) has been introduced from Latin scripts and is used identically, although without the reluctance seen in English usage.[20] A minor grammatical difference is that, while a series of interjections each employ an exclamation mark (e.g., Ωχ! Αχ!, Ōch! Ach!, 'Oops! Oh!'), an interjection should only be separated from an extended exclamation by a comma (e.g., Ωχ, ξέχασα το μάτι της κουζίνας ανοιχτό!, Ōch, xéchasa to máti tīs kouzínas anoichtó!, 'Oops! I left the stove on.').


In Hungarian, an exclamation mark is put at the end of exclamations, imperative or prohibitive sentences, and sentences expressing a wish (e.g. De szép! - 'How beautiful!', A fűre lépni tilos! - 'Do not step on the grass.', Bárcsak sikerülne a tervem! - 'If only my plan worked out.'). The use of the exclamation mark is also needed when addressing someone and the addressing is a separate sentence. (typically at the beginning of letters, e.g. Kedves Péter! - 'Dear Peter,').[21] Greetings are also typically terminated with an exclamation mark (e.g. Jó estét! - 'Good evening.').



In Spanish, a sentence or clause ending in an exclamation mark must also begin with an inverted exclamation mark (the same also applies to the question mark): ¿Estás loco? ¡Casi la matas!, 'Are you crazy? You almost killed her!'

As in British English, a bracketed exclamation mark may be used to indicate irony or surprise at a statement: Dice que esta noche no va a salir de fiesta (!), 'He said that he's not going to a party tonight(!).' Such use is not matched by an inverted opening exclamation mark.


In Turkish, an exclamation mark is used after a sentence or phrase for emphasis, and is common following both commands and the addressees of such commands. For example, in the Ordular! İlk hedefiniz Akdenizdir, ileri! ('Armies! Your first target is the Merranean') order by Atatürk, ordular ('the armies') constitute the addressee. It is further used in parentheses, (!), after a sentence or phrase to indicate irony or sarcasm: Çok iyi bir iş yaptın (!), 'You've done a very good job – Not!'.


In Limbu, an exclamation mark is used after a Limbu sentence or phrase for emphasis, and is common following both commands and the addressees of such commands. For example, in the Limbu sentence ᤐᤚᤢ᥄ ᤄᤨᤘᤑ ᤂᤥᤆᤌᤙ Merranean, ᤚᤦᤛᤅ᥄Paṡu! Ghōwapha khōcathaśa Merranean, ṡausaṅa! (Armies! Your first target is the Merranean!). It is further used in parentheses, (᥄), after a sentence or phrase to indicate irony or sarcasm: ᤖᤥᤂᤌ ᤔᤚᤗ ᤐᤤ ᤊᤇ ᤃᤦᤄ (᥄)Rōkhatha maṡala pai yancha gaugha (!) (You did a very good job — Not!).





There is a non–standard punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation mark in English called interrobang, which resembles those marks superimposed over one another (‽) but it is seldom seen outside Unicode documentation[citation needed] - the sequence of "?!" or "!?" is used almost exclusively.

Proper names[]

Although not part of dictionary words, exclamation marks appear in some brand names and trade names, including Yum! Brands (parent of fast food chains like Taco Bell and KFC) and Web services Yahoo! and Joomla!. It appears in the titles of stage and screen works, especially comedies and musicals; examples include the game show Jeopardy!, the '60s musical TV show Shindig!; musicals Oklahoma!, Oliver! and Oh! Calcutta!; and movies Airplane! and Moulin Rouge!. Writer Elliot S! Maggin and cartoonist Scott Shaw! include exclamation marks in their names. In the 2016 United States presidential campaign, Republican candidate Jeb Bush used "Jeb!" as his campaign logo.

Place names[]

The English town of Westward Ho!, named after the novel by Charles Kingsley, is the only place name in the United Kingdom that officially contains an exclamation mark. There is a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, which is spelled with two exclamation marks. The city of Hamilton, Ohio, changed its name to Hamilton! in 1986, but neither the United States Board on Geographic Names nor mapmakers Rand McNally recognised the change.[22] The city of Ostrava, Czech Republic, changed its logotype to Ostrava!!! in 2008.[23]


Warning signs are often an exclamation mark enclosed within a triangle

Exclamation marks are used to emphasize a precautionary statement.


New Zealand road sign warning of a "cattle stop" (cattle grid/cattle guard)

Unicode and HTML[]

The mark is encoded as U+0021 ! EXCLAMATION MARK (HTML &#33;) and &excl; in HTML5.[a]

Related forms are encoded:

Some scripts have a specific exclamation mark:

Use in various fields[]

Mathematics and formal logic[]


In linear logic, the exclamation mark denotes one of the modalities that control weakening and contraction.


In computing, the exclamation mark (sometimes called a "bang")[26] corresponds to ASCII character 33 (21 in hexadecimal). It is therefore found in Unicode at U+0021 ! EXCLAMATION MARK. The inverted exclamation mark is found in ISO-8859-1, 9 and 15 at position 161 (A1HEX) and in Unicode at U+00A1 ¡ INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK.



In APL, ! is used for factorial as in mathematics (but like all APL functions, preceding its argument) and also for the binomial coefficient, , written as k!n.













In the Perl 6 programming language, the "!" twigil is used to access private attributes or methods in a class (like class Person { has $!name; } or self!private-method;).[29]

Video games[]


In the 2005 arcade dance simulation game In the Groove 2, there is a song titled "!" (also referred to as "bang") by the artist Onyx.

Internet culture[]






Comic book writer Elliot S! Maggin once accidentally signed his name with an exclamation due to the habit of using them when writing comic scripts; it became his professional name from then on.[33][34] Similarly, comic artist Scott Shaw! has used the exclamation point after his name throughout his career.







Exclamation points or asterisks can be used on scorecards to denote a "great defensive play".[35]

Popular music[]

The band !!! (pronounced "Chk Chk Chk") uses exclamation points as its name.[36]

In 2008, the pop-punk band Panic! at the Disco dropped the exclamation point in its name; this became the "most-discussed topic on [fan] message boards around the world".[37] In 2009, the exclamation mark was re-inserted following the band's split.[38]


American musician Pink stylizes her stage name "P!NK",[39] and uses three exclamation points in the subtitle of her 2010 release, Greatest Hits... So Far!!!.[40]


The exclamation mark was included in the title of Dinah Shore's TV series, Dinah! The exclamation mark was later the subject of a bitter argument between Elaine Benes and her boyfriend, Jake Jarmel, in the Seinfeld episode, "The Sniffing Accountant". Elaine got upset with Jake for not putting an exclamation mark at the end of a message about her friend having a baby. Jake took extreme exception to the trivial criticism and broke up with Elaine, putting an exclamation mark after his parting words: "I'm leaving!"



See also[]


  1. ^ HTML5 is the only version of HTML that has a named entity for the exclamation mark.[24][25]


  5. ^ Truss (2004), p. 135.
  8. ^ "ASCII Pronunciation Guide".
  11. ^ "bang". The Jargon File. 4.4.8. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  15. ^ "Terminal punctuation identifies the end of a sentence, and most commonly includes periods, question marks, and exclamation points". Boundless.com. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  16. ^ Linnell, Garry (11 February 2017). "Donald Trump has murdered the English language with exclamation marks". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  20. ^ Nicolas, Nick. "Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation". 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014. Archived August 6, 2012, at Archive.today
  21. ^ www.nytud.hu, MTA NYTI. "A magyar helyesírás szabályai (AkH.) – helyesiras.mta.hu". helyesiras.mta.hu. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  22. ^ "Hamilton! (Cont'd.)". Washington Post. August 15, 1986. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  23. ^ "Logo of the City of Ostrava". ostrava.cz.
  24. ^ "24 Character entity references in HTML 4". w3.org. Retrieved April 7, 2018. The following sections present the complete lists of character entity references
  25. ^ "A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML". w3.org. July 31, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2018. excl;
  29. ^ "Object Orientation (Attributes)". Perl 6 Documentation. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  30. ^ Gawne, L. & Vaughan, J. (2012). "I can haz language play: The construction of language and identity in LOLspeak". Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference - 2011: 97–122.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  35. ^ Holz, Sean. Scoring Baseball - Advanced Symbols Baseball-Almanac.com
  39. ^ "P!nk's Biography | The Official P!nk Site". Pinkspage.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-10-12.
  40. ^ "P!nk Music: Greatest Hits... So Far!!! (Edited) | The Official P!nk Site". Pinkspage.com. Archived from the original on 2012-12-19. Retrieved 2012-10-12.

External links[]

Media related to Exclamation marks at Wikimedia Commons