full stop

The full stop symbol derives from the Greek punctuation introduced by Aristophanes of Byzantium in the 3rd century BCE in Alexandria.{{cn|date=January 2025}} In his system, there was a series of dots whose placement determined their meaning. His three punctuations were these: the end of a completed thought or expression was marked by a high dot {{char|˙}}, called the {{lang|grc-Latn|stigmḕ teleía}} ({{lang|grc|στιγμὴ τελεία}}) or "terminal dot"; the "middle dot" {{char|·}}, the {{lang|grc-Latn|stigmḕ mésē}} ({{lang|grc|στιγμὴ μέση}}), marked a division in a thought occasioning a longer breath (essentially a semicolon); the low dot {{char|.}}, called the {{lang|grc-Latn|hypostigmḕ}} ({{lang|grc|ὑποστιγμή}}) or "underdot", marked a division in a thought occasioning a shorter breath (essentially a comma).{{cite web |last=Nicolas |first=Nick |url= http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html |title=Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120806003722/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html |archive-date=August 6, 2012 |date=2005 |work=TLG.UCI.edu |publisher=University of California, Irvine}}

The name period is first attested (as the Latin loanword {{lang|la|peridos}}) in Ælfric of Eynsham's Old English treatment on grammar. There, it was distinguished from the full stop (the {{lang|la|distinctio}}) and continued the Greek underdot's earlier function as a comma between phrases.{{cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |chapter="period, n., adj., and adv. |type=CD-ROM ver. 3.1 |orig-date=1989}} It shifted its meaning to a dot marking a full stop in the works of the 16th-century grammarians. In the 7th century, Isidore of Seville updated the system slightly; he assigned the dots to indicate short {{char|.}}, medium {{char|·}} and long {{char|·}} pauses in reading, respectively.{{Cite web |last=Houston |first=Keith |date=2 September 2015 |title=The mysterious origins of punctuation |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150902-the-mysterious-origins-of-punctuation |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}{{Cite book |last=Metzger |first=Bruce M. |title=Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Palaeography |date=17 September 1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195365320 |page=81}}

In practice, scribes mostly employed the terminal dot; the others fell out of use and were later replaced by other symbols. From the 9th century onwards, the full stop began appearing as a low mark (instead of a high one), and by the time printing began in Western Europe, the lower dot was regular and then universal.

In 19th-century texts, British English and American English both frequently used the terms period and full stop.{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1Y2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA333 |title=The Workshop: Printing for Amateurs |date=6 November 1875 |page=333 |journal=The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household |volume=13 |access-date=24 December 2013}} The word period was used as a name for what printers often called the "full point", the punctuation mark that was a dot on the baseline and used in several situations. The phrase full stop was only used to refer to the punctuation mark when it was used to terminate a sentence. This terminological distinction seems to be eroding. For example, the 1998 edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage used full point for the mark used after an abbreviation, but full stop or full point when it was employed at the end of a sentence;{{cite book |title=Fowler's Modern English Usage |edition=Revised 3rd |date=2010 |orig-date=1998 |first=R. W. |last=Burchfield |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-861021-2 |chapter=full stop |pages=317–318}} the 2015 edition, however, treats them as synonymous (and prefers full stop),{{cite book |title=Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage |edition=4th |date=2015 |first=Jeremy |last=Butterfield |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-966135-0 |chapter=full stop |pages=331–332}} and New Hart's Rules does likewise (but prefers full point).{{cite book |title=New Hart's Rules |date=2014 |first=Anne |last=Waddingham |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=4.6: Full point |page=81 |isbn=978-0-19-957002-7}} Essentially the same text is found in the previous edition under various titles, including New Hart's Rules, Oxford Style Manual, and The Oxford Guide to Style. The last edition (1989) of the original Hart's Rules (before it became The Oxford Guide to Style in 2002) exclusively used full point.{{cite book |title=Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers |edition=Corrected 39th |date=1989 |orig-date=1983 |first=Horace |last=Hart |author-link=Horace Hart |display-authors=etal |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-212983-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hartsrulesforcom0039oxfo/page/2 2–5, 41, etc.] |url=https://archive.org/details/hartsrulesforcom0039oxfo/page/2}}

Full stops are the most commonly used punctuation marks; analysis of texts indicate that approximately half of all punctuation marks used are full stops.{{Cite web |url=http://www.brailleauthority.org/research-ueb/contentanalysisfinal11-15-04.pdf |title=A Comparison of the Frequency of Number/Punctuation and Number/Letter Combinations in Literary and Technical Materials |archive-date=2 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102215545/http://www.brailleauthority.org/research-ueb/contentanalysisfinal11-15-04.pdf |url-status=live}}{{cite book |first=Charles F. |last=Meyer |title=A Linguistic Study of American Punctuation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=URWFQgAACAAJ |date=1987 |publisher=Peter Lang Publishing, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-8204-0522-3}}, referenced in [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Punctuation/PunctFigs.htm Frequencies for English Punctuation Marks] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102005717/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Punctuation/PunctFigs.htm |date=2 November 2013}} Some of the usages of full stops are:

Full stops indicate the end of sentences that are not questions or exclamations. However, according to the 2014 University of Oxford Style Guide, a full stop is not to be written if it is followed, or preceded, by an ellipsis.{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=University of Oxford Style Guide |url=https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/University%20of%20Oxford%20Style%20Guide.pdf |page=15}}

{{Further|Abbreviation#Periods (full stops) and spaces}}

It is usual in North American English to use full stops after initials; e.g.: A. A. Milne and George W. Bush. British usage is less strict. A few style guides discourage full stops after initials. However, there is a general trend and initiatives to spell out names in full instead of abbreviating them in order to avoid ambiguity.

A full stop is used after some abbreviations.{{cite book |title=New Hart's Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-861041-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/newhartsrules00rmri |date=2005}} If the abbreviation ends a declaratory sentence, there is no additional period immediately following the full stop that ends the abbreviation (e.g. "My name is Gabriel Gama Jr."). Though two full stops (one for the abbreviation, one for the sentence ending) might be expected, conventionally only one is written.Generally accepted by sources. {{Cite web |title=Periods |url=https://www.nova.edu/tutoring-testing/study-resources/forms/periods.pdf |website=Nova Southeastern University}} {{Cite web |title=Punctuation: Periods, Question Marks, Exclamation Marks, Commas, and Semi-colons |url=https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/rgasc/media/2605/download?inline |website=The Robert Gillespie |page=2}} This is an intentional omission, and thus not haplography, which is an unintentional omission of a duplicate. In the case of an interrogative or exclamatory sentence ending with an abbreviation, a question or exclamation mark can still be added (e.g., "Are you Gabriel Gama Jr.?").{{Cite web |title=The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition |url=https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0082.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240618014250/https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0082.html |archive-date=2024-06-18 |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=The Chicago Manual of Style Online |language=en}}

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, this does not include, for example, the standard abbreviations for titles such as Professor ("Prof.") or Reverend ("Rev."), because they do not end with the last letter of the word they are abbreviating.{{cite web |date=2017 |title=Punctuation in abbreviations |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/punctuation-in-abbreviations-american |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217073625/http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/punctuation-in-abbreviations-american |archive-date=17 December 2012 |access-date=11 October 2017 |work=OxfordDictionaries.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |at="Punctuation" section}} In American English, the common convention is to include the period after all such abbreviations.

In acronyms and initialisms, the modern style is generally to not use full points after each initial (e.g.: DNA, UK, USSR). The punctuation is somewhat more often used in American English, most commonly with U.S. and U.S.A. in particular, depending upon the house style of a particular writer or publisher.{{cite web |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/initialisms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216124820/http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/initialisms |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2011 |title=Initialisms |at="Abbreviations" section |work=OxfordDictionaries.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2017 |access-date=11 October 2017}} As some examples from American style guides, The Chicago Manual of Style (primarily for book and academic-journal publishing) deprecates the use of full points in acronyms, including U.S.,The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. while The Associated Press Stylebook (primarily for journalism) dispenses with full points in acronyms except for certain two-letter cases, including U.S., U.K. and U.N., but not EU.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/associatedpresss0000unse_y1w3/page/2/mode/2up |title=The Associated Press Stylebook |date=2015 |pages=1–2 |chapter=abbreviations and acronyms|isbn=978-0-465-06294-2 }}

In British English, whether for the 12-hour clock or sometimes its 24-hour counterpart, the dot is commonly used and some style guides recommend it when telling time, including those from non-BBC public broadcasters in the UK, the academic manual published by Oxford University Press under various titles,{{Cite book |title=New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957002-7 |editor-last=Waddingham |editor-first=Anne |edition=2nd |chapter=11.3 Times of day}} as well as the internal house style book for the University of Oxford,{{cite web |date=2016 |title=University of Oxford style guide |url=https://www.ox.ac.uk/public-affairs/style-guide |website=University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate}} and that of The Economist,{{cite book |title=Economist Style Guide |date=2018 |publisher=The Economist |isbn=9781781258316 |edition=12th |page=185}} The Guardian{{cite web |date=2017 |title=times |url=https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-t |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709224453/https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-t |archive-date=9 July 2017 |access-date=24 July 2021 |work=Guardian and Observer style guide |publisher=Guardian Media Group}} and The Times newspapers.{{Cite book |last=Brunskill |first=Ian |title=The Times Style Guide: A guide to English usage |date=2017 |publisher=The Times / HarperCollins |isbn=9780008146184 |edition=2nd |location=Glasgow |oclc=991389792}} Formerly available online: {{cite web |date=2011 |title=The Times Online Style Guide |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/article986738.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804234723/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/article986738.ece |archive-date=4 August 2011 |publisher=News UK}} American and Canadian English mostly prefers and uses colons (:) (i.e., 11:15 PM/pm/p.m. or 23:15 for AmE/CanE and 11.15 pm or 23.15 for BrE),{{cite web |last=Trask |first=Larry |date=1997 |title=The Colon |url=http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node16.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805052453/http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node16.html |archive-date=5 August 2013 |access-date=21 August 2013 |work=Guide to Punctuation |publisher=University of Sussex}} so does the BBC, but only with 24-hour times, according to its news style guide as updated in August 2020.{{cite web |title=BBC News Style Guide |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/numbers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216184631/https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/numbers/ |archive-date=16 February 2022 |access-date=1 April 2022 |publisher=BBC |quote=Numbers ... time references ... Hours: We use the 24-hour clock (with a colon) in all circumstances (including streaming), labelled GMT or BST as appropriate.}} The point as a time separator is also used in Irish English, particularly by the {{Langr|ga|Raidió Teilifís Éireann}} (RTÉ), and to a lesser extent in Australian, Cypriot, Maltese, New Zealand, South African and other Commonwealth English varieties outside Canada.

In British English, the words "full stop" at the end of an utterance strengthen it; they indicate that it admits no further discussion: "I'm not going with you, full stop." In American English, the word "period" serves this function. Another common use in African-American Vernacular English is found in the phrase "And that's on period", which is used to express the strength of the speaker's previous statement, usually to emphasise an opinion.

{{more citations needed section|date=November 2017}}

The period glyph is used in the presentation of numbers, either as a decimal separator or as a thousands separator.

In the more prevalent usage in English-speaking countries, as well as in South Asia and East Asia, the point represents a decimal separator, visually dividing whole numbers from fractional (decimal) parts. The comma is then used to separate the whole-number parts into groups of three digits each when numbers are sufficiently large.

• 1.007 (one and seven thousandths)
• 1,002.007 (one thousand two and seven thousandths)
• 1,002,003.007 (one million two thousand three and seven thousandths)

File:Cologne Germany Max-Load-Sign-at-Harbour-Crane-34-01.jpg

The more prevalent usage in much of Europe, southern Africa and Latin America (with the exception of Mexico due to the influence of the United States) reverses the roles of the comma and point but sometimes substitutes a (thin-)space for a point.

• 1,007 (one and seven thousandths)
• 1.002,007 or 1 002,007 (one thousand two and seven thousandths)
• 1.002.003,007 or 1 002 003,007 (one million two thousand three and seven thousandths)

To avoid problems with the spaces (such as the potential confusion that could be introduced by line wrapping), another convention sometimes used is to use apostrophe signs (') instead of spaces.

India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan follow the Indian numbering system, which utilizes commas and decimals much like the aforementioned system popular in most English-speaking countries but separates values of one hundred thousand and above differently, into divisions of lakh and crore:

• 1.007 (one and seven thousandths)
• 1,002.007 (one thousand two and seven thousandths)
• 10,02,003.007 (one million two thousand three and seven thousandths, or ten lakh two thousand three and seven thousandths)

In countries that use the comma as a decimal separator, the point is sometimes found as a multiplication sign; for example, 5,2 . 2 = 10,4; this usage is impractical in cases where the point is used as a decimal separator, hence the use of the interpunct: 5.2 · 2 = 10.4. The interpunct is also used when multiplying units in science—for example, 50 km/h could be written as 50 km·h⁻¹—and to indicate a dot product, i.e., the scalar product of two vectors.

In many languages, an ordinal dot is used as the ordinal indicator. This applies mostly in Central and Northern Europe: in German, Hungarian, several Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian), Faroese, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian and also in Basque and Turkish. The dots are typically placed after the ordinal number; for example, "7." generally represents the seventh.

The Serbian standard of Serbo-Croatian (unlike the Croatian and Bosnian standards) uses the dot in the role of the ordinal indicator only past Arabic numerals, while Roman numerals are used without a dot.{{cn|date=January 2025}} In Polish, the period can be omitted if there is no ambiguity about whether a given numeral is ordinal or cardinal.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

In modern texts, multilevel numbered headings are widely used. For example, the string "2.3.1.5" represents a 4th-level heading within chapter 2 (i.e., in the second chapter, the third subsection, the first sub-subsection and the fifth, the sub-sub-subsection).

In older literature on mathematical logic, the period glyph was used to indicate how expressions should be bracketed, as explained in the Glossary of Principia Mathematica. Full stops can be used as the border of logical operations to potentially prevent ambiguities; e.g., in ⊢: P∈Ω. E!B̌P. ⊃. P∈Ded., full stops are used to separate logical statements.{{Cite book |last1=Whitehead |first1=Alfred North |title=Principia Mathematica |last2=Russell |first2=Bertrand |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1927 |pages=10 |orig-year=originally published in 1910}}

{{redirect|Dot (character)|the fictional character|Yakko, Wakko, and Dot}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}

In computing, the full point, usually called a dot in this context, is often used as a delimiter, such as in DNS lookups, Web addresses, file names and software release versions:

• www.wikipedia.org
• document.txt
• 192.168.0.1
• Chrome 92.0.4515.130

It is used in many programming languages as an important part of the syntax. C uses it as a means of accessing a member of a struct, and this syntax was inherited by C++ as a means of accessing a member of a class or object.{{Cite web |date=26 June 2024 |title=Dot operator . |url=https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=expressions-dot-operator |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=IBM |language=en-us}} Java and Python also follow this convention. Pascal uses it both as a means of accessing a member of a record set (the equivalent of struct in C), a member of an object, and after the end construct that defines the body of the program. In APL, it is also used for generalised inner product and outer product. In Erlang, Prolog and Smalltalk, it marks the end of a statement ("sentence"). In a regular expression, it represents a match of any character. In Perl and PHP, the dot is the string concatenation operator. In the Haskell standard library, it is the function composition operator. In COBOL, a full stop ends a statement.

In file systems, the dot is commonly used to separate the extension of a file name from the name of the file (e.g., filename.mp4). RISC OS uses dots to separate levels of the hierarchical file system when writing path names—similar to / (forward-slash) in Unix-based systems and \ (back-slash) in MS-DOS-based systems and the Windows NT systems that succeeded them. In Unix-like operating systems, some applications treat files or directories that start with a dot as hidden. This means that they are not displayed or listed to the user by default. In Unix-like systems and Microsoft Windows, the dot character represents the working directory of the file system. Two dots (..) represent the parent directory of the working directory.

Bourne shell-derived command-line interpreters, such as sh, ksh and bash, use the dot as a command to read a file and execute its content in the running interpreter. (Some of these also offer source as a synonym, based on that usage in the C shell.)

Versions of software are often denoted with the style x.y.z (or more), where x is a major release, y is a mid-cycle enhancement release and z is a patch level designation, but actual usage is entirely vendor specific.

The term STOP was used in telegrams in the United States in place of the full stop. The end of a sentence would be marked by STOP; its use "in telegraphic communications was greatly increased during the World War, when the Government employed it widely as a precaution against having messages garbled or misunderstood, as a result of the misplacement or emission{{sic}} of the tiny dot or period."{{cite news |url=http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html#Punctuation |title=How to Write Telegrams Properly |first=Nelson |last=Ross |work=The Telegraph Office |date=1928 |access-date=11 June 2018 |archive-date=31 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131104336/http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html#Punctuation |url-status=dead}}

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses the full stop to signify a syllable break.

{{Main|Quotation marks in English#Order of punctuation}}

The practice in the United States and Canada is to place full stops and commas inside quotation marks in most styles.{{cite web |url=http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html |first=Chelsea |last=Lee |title=Punctuating Around Quotation Marks |work=Style Guide of the American Psychological Association |date=2011 |archive-date=22 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322162100/http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html |url-status=live}} In the British system, which is also called "logical quotation",{{cite web |url=http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/Documents/JISS%20Style%20Guide%20revised%20FV.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410233640/http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/Documents/JISS%20Style%20Guide%20revised%20FV.pdf |archive-date=10 April 2011 |url-status=dead |author= |title=Style Guide |work=Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies |publisher=Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen |date=2008 |quote=Punctuation marks are placed inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the punctuation is part of the quotation; this system is referred to as logical quotation. |access-date=15 September 2015}} full stops and commas are placed according to grammatical sense:{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoFJ-OhE63UC&q=%22quotation+marks%22+%22according+to+sense%22+British&pg=PA180 |author= |title=Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2002 |quote=In the British style (OUP 1983), all signs of punctuation used with words and quotation marks must be placed according to the sense. |access-date=4 September 2015 |isbn=9780521471541}} This means that when they are part of the quoted material, they should be placed inside, and otherwise should be outside. For example, they are placed outside in the cases of words-as-words, titles of short-form works and quoted sentence fragments.

• Bruce Springsteen, nicknamed "the Boss," performed "American Skin." (closed or American style)
• Bruce Springsteen, nicknamed "the Boss", performed "American Skin". (logical or British style)
• He said, "I love music." (both)

There is some national crossover. The American style is common in British fiction writing.{{Cite book |last1=Butcher |first1=Judith |last2=Drake |first2=Caroline |last3=Leach |first3=Maureen |title=Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |page=273 |isbn=978-0-521-84713-1}} The British style is sometimes used in American English. For example, The Chicago Manual of Style recommends it for fields where comma placement could affect the meaning of the quoted material, such as linguistics and textual criticism.{{cite web |url=http://www.wilbers.com/FAQPunctuation.htm |first=Stephen |last=Wilbers |title=Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Punctuation |quote=The British style is strongly advocated by some American language experts. In defense of nearly a century and a half of the American style, however, it may be said that it seems to have been working fairly well and has not resulted in serious miscommunication. Whereas there clearly is some risk with question marks and exclamation points, there seems little likelihood that readers will be misled concerning the period or comma. There may be some risk in such specialized material as textual criticism, but in that case author and editors may take care to avoid the danger by alternative phrasing or by employing, in this exacting field, the exacting British system. In linguistic and philosophical works, specialized terms are regularly punctuated the British way, along with the use of single quotation marks. [quote attributed to Chicago Manual of style, 14th ed.] |access-date=10 September 2015 |archive-date=13 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613040839/http://www.wilbers.com/FAQPunctuation.htm |url-status=live}}{{cite book |title=Chicago Manual of Style |publisher=University of Chicago Press |edition=15th |date=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chicagomanualofs00univ_0/page/6 6.8 – 6.10] |isbn=0-226-10403-6 |quote="According to what is sometimes called the British style (set forth in The Oxford Guide to Style [the successor to Hart's Rules]; see bibliog. 1.1.]), a style also followed in other English-speaking countries, only those punctuation points that appeared in the original material should be included within the quotation marks; all others follow the closing quotation marks. ... In the kind of textual studies where retaining the original placement of a comma in relation to closing quotation marks is essential to the author's argument and scholarly integrity, the alternative system described in 6.10 ['the British style'] could be used, or rephrasing might avoid the problem." |url=https://archive.org/details/chicagomanualofs00univ_0/page/6}}

The use of placement according to logical or grammatical sense, or "logical convention", now the more common practice in regions other than North America,{{cite book |last1=Weiss |first1=Edmond H. |title=The Elements of International English Style: A Guide to Writing Correspondence, Reports, Technical Documents Internet Pages For a Global Audience |date=2015 |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-2830-5 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pMmfyHYCt6cC&q=closed+logical+convention&pg=PA75 |access-date=24 January 2016}} was advocated in the influential book The King's English by Fowler and Fowler, published in 1906. Prior to the influence of this work, the typesetter's or printer's style, or "closed convention", now also called American style, was common throughout the world.

== Spacing after a full stop ==

{{Main|Sentence spacing}}

There have been a number of practices relating to the spacing after a full stop. Some examples are listed below:

• One word space ("French spacing"). This is the current convention in most countries that use the ISO basic Latin alphabet for published and final written work, as well as digital media.{{cite book |title=The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications |edition=2nd |last=Einsohn |first=Amy |date=2006 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley / Los Angeles |isbn=978-0-520-24688-1 |page=113}}{{cite web |title=Space Invaders |first=Farhad |last=Manjoo |work=Slate |date=13 January 2011 |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2281146?wpisrc=sl_ipad |archive-date=7 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507183848/http://www.slate.com/id/2281146?wpisrc=sl_ipad |url-status=live}}
• Two word spaces ("English spacing"). It is sometimes claimed that the two-space convention stems from the use of the monospaced font on typewriters, but in fact that convention replicates much earlier typography—the intent was to provide a clear break between sentences.{{cite web |url=http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324 |title=Why two spaces after a period isn't wrong (or, the lies typographers tell about history) |first=John Z. ("Heraclitus") |last=McKay |date=1 November 2011 |access-date=8 August 2013 |archive-date=17 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171217060354/http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324}} This spacing method was gradually replaced by the single space convention in published print, where space is at a premium, and continues in much digital media.{{cite book |title=The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type |last=Felici |first=James |date=2003 |publisher=Peachpit Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-321-12730-7 |pages=80}}; {{cite book |title=The Elements of Topographic Style |edition=3.0 |last=Bringhurst |first=Robert |date=2004 |publisher=Hartley & Marks |location=Washington / Vancouver |isbn=0-88179-206-3 |page=28}}
• One widened space (such as an em space). This spacing was seen in historical typesetting practices (until the early 20th century).See for example, {{cite book |title=Manual of Style: A Compilation of Typographical Rules Governing the Publications of The University of Chicago, with Specimens of Types Used at the University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/manualstyleacom01presgoog |edition=3rd |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1911 |page=101 |isbn=1-145-26446-8}} It has also been used in other typesetting systems such as the Linotype machine{{cite book |title=Linotype Keyboard Operation: Methods of Study and Procedures for Setting Various Kinds of Composition on the Linotype |last=Mergenthaler Linotype Company |date=1940 |publisher=Mergenthaler Linotype Company |asin=B000J0N06M |ref=Mer40}} Cited in: {{cite web |url=http://typophile.com/node/3466 |title=Double-spacing after Periods |first=Mark |last=Simonson |author-link=Mark Simonson |date=5 March 2004 |work=Typophile |access-date=5 April 2010 |archive-date=20 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120091711/http://typophile.com/node/3466 |url-status=dead}} and the TeX system.{{Cite book |last=Eijkhout |first=Victor |date=2014 |title=TeX by Topic, A TeXnician's Reference |isbn=978-3-86541-590-5 |url=https://texdoc.org/serve/texbytopic/0 |publisher=Dante / Lehmans Media |pages=185–188 |orig-date=1991}} First published 1991 by Addison Wesley, Wokingham 978-0-201-56882-0 Modern computer-based digital fonts can adjust the spacing after terminal punctuation as well, creating a space slightly wider than a standard word space.{{cite book |title=The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type |last=Felici |first=James |date=2003 |publisher=Peachpit Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-321-12730-7 |page=80}}; {{cite book |title=Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (Quick and Dirty Tips) |last=Fogarty |first=Mignon |date=2008 |publisher=Holt Paperbacks |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8050-8831-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/grammargirlsquic0000foga/page/85 85] |url=https://archive.org/details/grammargirlsquic0000foga/page/85}}; {{cite book |title=The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes |edition=10th |last=Straus |first=Jane |date=2009 |publisher=Jossey-Bass |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-470-22268-3 |page=52}}

{{anchor|Teleia}}

File:Minuscule 1424, f. 317 r. 1 Tim 3,16.jpg manuscript with high dots as full stops]]

Although the present Greek full stop ({{lang|el|τελεία}}, {{transl|el|teleía}}) is romanized as a Latin full stop{{lang|el|Ελληνικός Οργανισμός Τυποποίησης}} [Ellīnikós Organismós Typopoíīsīs, "Hellenic Organization for Standardization"]. {{lang|el|ΕΛΟΤ 743, 2η Έκδοση}} [ELOT 743, 2ī Ekdosī, "ELOT 743, {{nowrap|2nd ed.}}"]. ELOT (Athens), 2001. {{in lang|el}}. and encoded identically with the full stop in Unicode, the historic full stop in Greek was a high dot and the low dot functioned as a kind of comma, as noted above. The low dot was increasingly but irregularly used to mark full stops after the 9th century and was fully adapted after the advent of print. The teleia should also be distinguished from the ano teleia, which is named "high stop" but looks like an interpunct, and principally functions as the Greek semicolon.

The Armenian script uses the ։ ({{lang|hy|վերջակետ}}, {{transl|hy|verdjaket}}). It looks similar to the colon (:).

Punctuation used with Chinese characters (and in Japanese) often includes {{unichar|3002|IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP}}, a small circle used as a full stop instead of a solid dot. When used with traditional characters, the full stop is generally centered on the mean line; when used with simplified characters, it is usually aligned to the baseline. In written vertical text, the full stop is sometimes positioned to the top-right or in the top- to center-middle. In Unicode, it is the {{unichar|FE12|PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP}}.

Korean uses the Latin full stop along with its native script.

File:Yohannes IV - 5.jpg's call to arms]]

In the Ge'ez script that is used to write Amharic and several other Ethiopian and Eritrean languages, the equivalent of the full stop following a sentence is the "{{transl|am|ˈarat nettib}}" ({{unichar|1362|}}), which means four dots. The two dots on the right are slightly ascending from the two on the left, with space in between.

Indo-Aryan languages predominantly use Nagari-based scripts. In the Devanagari script that is used to write languages like Hindi, Maithili, Nepali, etc., a vertical line {{unichar|0964|}} is used to mark the end of a sentence. It is known as {{lang|hi|poorna viraam}} (full stop). In Sanskrit, the additional symbol of two vertical lines {{unichar|0965|}} is used to mark the end of a poetic verse. However, some languages that are written in Devanagari use the Latin full stop, such as Marathi.

In the Eastern Nagari script used to write languages like Bangla and Assamese, the same vertical line ("।") is used for a full stop, known as {{lang|bn|Daa`ri}} in Bengali. Also, languages like Odia and Panjabi (which respectively use Oriya and Gurmukhi scripts) use the same symbol. Inspired from Indic scripts, the Santali language also uses a similar symbol in Ol Chiki script: {{unichar|1C7E|}} to mark the end of a sentence. Similarly, it also uses {{unichar|1C7F|}} to indicate a major break, like the end of a section, although rarely used.

In Sinhala, a symbol called kundaliya {{unichar|0DF4}} was used before the colonial era. Latin full stops were later introduced into the Sinhalese script after the introduction of paper due to the influence of European languages.

In Burmese script, the symbol {{unichar|104B}} is used as a full stop. However, in Thai, no symbol corresponding to the full stop is used as terminal punctuation. A sentence is written without spaces and a space is typically used to mark the end of a clause or sentence.

The Tibetan script uses two different full stops: tshig-grub ({{unichar|0F0D}}) marks the end of a section of text, while the don-tshan ({{unichar|0F0E}}) is used to mark the end of a whole topic. The descendants of Tibetic script also use similar symbols: For example, the Róng script of the Lepcha language uses {{char|{{Script|Lepc|᰻}}}} and {{char|{{Script|Lepc|᰼}}}} ({{unichar|1C3B}} and {{unichar|1C3C}}). However, due to the influence of the Burmese script, the Meitei script of the Manipuri language uses {{unichar|AAF0}} for a comma and {{unichar|ABEB}} to mark the end of a sentence.

For Indo-Aryan languages which are written in Nastaliq, like Kashmiri, Panjabi, Saraiki and Urdu, a symbol called {{lang|ur-Latn|k͟hatma}} ({{unichar|06D4|Arabic Full Stop}}) is used as a full stop at the end of sentences and in abbreviations. The symbol ({{char|{{nastaliq|۔}}}}) looks similar to a lowered dash ({{char|–}}).

Full stop Unicode code points:

• {{unichar|002E|FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|0589|ARMENIAN FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|06D4|ARABIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|0701|SYRIAC SUPRALINEAR FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|0702|SYRIAC SUBLINEAR FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|1362|ETHIOPIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|166E|CANADIAN SYLLABICS FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|1803|MONGOLIAN FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|1809|MONGOLIAN MANCHU FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|2CF9|COPTIC OLD NUBIAN FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|2CFE|COPTIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|2E3C|STENOGRAPHIC FULL STOP|nlink=stenography}}
• {{unichar|3002|IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|A4FF|LISU PUNCTUATION FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|A60E|VAI FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|A6F3|BAMUM FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|FE12|PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|FE52|SMALL FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|FF0E|FULLWIDTH FULL STOP|nlink=CJK characters}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SA92uQqTB-AC&pg=PA502 |last=Lunde |first=Ken |title=CJKV Information Processing |publisher=O'Reilly |date=2009 |isbn=9780596514471 |pages=502–505}}
• {{unichar|FF61|HALFWIDTH IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|16AF5|BASSA VAH FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|16E98|MEDEFAIDRIN FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|1BC9F|DUPLOYAN PUNCTUATION CHINOOK FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|1DA88|SIGNWRITING FULL STOP}}
• {{unichar|E002E|TAG FULL STOP}}

Researchers from Binghamton University performed a small study, published in 2016, on young adults and found that text messages that included sentences ended with full stops—as opposed to those with no terminal punctuation—were perceived as insincere, though they stipulated that their results apply only to this particular medium of communication: "Our sense was, is that because [text messages] were informal and had a chatty kind of feeling to them, that a period may have seemed stuffy, too formal, in that context," said head researcher Cecelia Klin.{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/12/20/459485722/you-should-watch-the-way-you-punctuate-your-text-messages-period |title=You Should Watch The Way You Punctuate Your Text Messages – Period |publisher=National Public Radio |date=20 December 2015 |archive-date=21 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151221030237/http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/12/20/459485722/you-should-watch-the-way-you-punctuate-your-text-messages-period |url-status=live}} The study did not find handwritten notes to be affected.{{cite journal |last1=Gunraj |first1=Danielle |last2=Drumm-Hewitt |first2=April |last3=Dashow |first3=Erica |last4=Upadhyay |first4=Sri Siddhi |last5=Klim |first5=Celia |title=Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging |journal=Computers in Human Behavior |volume=55 |pages=1067–1075 |orig-date=2015 |date=February 2016 |doi=10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.003}}

A 2016 story by Jeff Guo in The Washington Post stated that the line break had become the default method of punctuation in texting, comparable to the use of line breaks in poetry, and that a period at the end of a sentence causes the tone of the message to be perceived as cold, angry or passive-aggressive.Guo, Jeff (13 June 2016). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/13/stop-using-periods-period-2/ "Stop. Using. Periods. Period."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614124915/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/13/stop-using-periods-period-2/ |date=14 June 2016 }}. The Washington Post.

According to Gretchen McCulloch, an internet linguist, using a full stop to end messages is seen as "rude" by more and more people. She said this can be attributed to the way we text and use instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. She added that the default way to break up one's thoughts is to send each thought as an individual message.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49182824 |title=Is the full stop rude? |work=BBC News |date=August 2019 |last1=Morton |first1=Becky |access-date=19 August 2019 |archive-date=6 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806101207/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49182824 |url-status=live}}

{{Wiktionary|full stop}}

• {{Annotated link |Decimal separator}}
• {{Annotated link |Dot (disambiguation)}}
• {{Annotated link |Sentence spacing}}
• {{Annotated link |Terminal punctuation}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite book |first=Cindy |last=Barden |title=Grammar Grades |volume=4–5 |date=2007 |page=9 |quote=Use a period after a person's initials. Examples: A. A. Milne ... L.B.Peep W157 ... Use Periods With Initials Name. Initials are abbreviations for parts of a person's name. ... Date: Add periods at the ends of sentences, after abbreviations, and after initials}}

{{cite book |title=The Brief Thomson Handbook |first1=David |last1=Blakesley |first2=Jeffrey Laurence |last2=Hoogeveen |date=2007 |page=477 |quote=Use periods with initials: George W. Bush ... Carolyn B. Maloney}}

{{cite web |title=Full stop |publisher=School of critical studies, University of Glasgow |url=https://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/LILT/fullstop.htm |archive-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731223635/https://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/LILT/fullstop.htm |url-status=live}}

{{cite web |title=Instructions for authors |publisher=Ecclesiastical Law Journal |date=4 September 2014 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ecclesiastical-law-journal/information/instructions-contributors |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410183721/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ecclesiastical-law-journal/information/instructions-contributors |url-status=live}}

{{cite web |title=Authors Guide-lines for Electronic Submission of MSS to Third Text |publisher=Third Text: Critical perspectives on contemporary art and culture |url=http://thirdtext.org/authors-guidelines |access-date=2 May 2020 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801000325/http://thirdtext.org/authors-guidelines |url-status=live}}

{{cite web |title=Let's celebrate everybody's full names |work=Recent News |first=Donald Ervin |last=Knuth |author-link=Donald Ervin Knuth |date=2016 |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news16.html |access-date=30 July 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122165200/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news16.html |archive-date=22 January 2018 |quote=One of the delights of Wikipedia is that its biographies generally reveal a person's full and complete name, including the correct way to spell it in different alphabets and scripts. ... When I prepared the index ... of The Art of Computer Programming, I wanted to make it as useful as possible, so I spent six weeks compiling all of the entries. In order to relieve the tedium of index preparation, and to underscore the fact that my index was trying to be complete, I decided to include the full name of every author who was cited, whenever possible. ... Over the years, many people have told me how they've greatly appreciated this feature of my books. It has turned out to be a beautiful way to relish the fact that computer science is the result of thousands of individual contributions from people with a huge variety of cultural backgrounds. ... The American Mathematical Society has just launched a great initiative by which all authors can now fully identify themselves ... I strongly encourage everybody to document their full names}}

{{cite web |title=Who wrote that? |first=Edward "Ed" |last=Dunne |date=14 September 2015 |work=AMS Blogs |publisher=American Mathematical Society |url=https://blogs.ams.org/beyondreviews/2015/09/14/who-wrote-that/ |access-date=30 July 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524082631/https://blogs.ams.org/beyondreviews/2015/09/14/who-wrote-that/ |archive-date=24 May 2020}}

{{cite web |title=Personalizing your author profile |first=Edward "Ed" |last=Dunne |date=16 November 2015 |work=AMS Blogs |publisher=American Mathematical Society |url=https://blogs.ams.org/beyondreviews/2015/11/16/personalizing-your-author-profile/ |access-date=30 July 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504071218/https://blogs.ams.org/beyondreviews/2015/11/16/personalizing-your-author-profile/ |archive-date=4 May 2020}}

}}

{{navbox punctuation}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Punctuation

Category:Ancient Greek punctuation