| period | punctuation mark (.) used at the end of a statement, mild command, or indirect question
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| question mark | punctuation mark (?) used after a sentence that asks a question
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| exclamation mark | punctuation mark (!) used after a word or statement that expresses extreme emotion or that gives a strong command
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| colon | punctuation mark (:) that directs attention to what follows
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| semicolon | punctuation mark (;) joining two complete thoughts that are closely related, but not connected by a joining word, or used to separate items in a series that contain punctuation
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| hyphen | punctuation mark (-) used either to divide a word at the end of a line of writing, to join words together that jointly describe a noun that follows, or in certain numerals
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| dash | a punctuation mark (--) used between parts of a sentence, either to set off and emphasize interrupting material, to signal the end of a list of items, or to introduce a final element
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| parentheses | punctuation marks [( )] used to set off material that interrupts the flow of a sentence, or around numbers that introduce items in a list
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