punctuation
/pʌŋktjʊˈeɪʃən/noun
mass noun
1
- the marks, such as full stop, comma, and brackets, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning标点。
2
- Biology rapid or sudden speciation, as suggested by the theory of punctuated equilibrium【生】（点断性平衡说提出的）新物种迅速（或突然）的形成。
派生词
punctuational
adjective词源
mid 17th cent.: from medieval Latin punctuatio（n-）, from the verb punctuare （see PUNCTUATE）.