Period (punctuation)
- This page is about the punctuation mark, for other uses, see Period.
A period, also known as a full stop, in punctuation is a dot (.) that is at the end of a sentence. It shows that an idea has finished.
When it is used in numbers, it is called a decimal point. It shows that the numbers to the right of it are less than one, as in 1.234. When it is used to write money in numbers, it shows that the numbers to the right of it are less than one pound/dollar/euro. For example:
- "Elizabeth bought a soda for $1.25."
means that Elizabeth paid one dollar and twenty-five cents for her drink.
A period also means a word has been shortened when it is after the word, for example: Pty. Ltd. The words doctor, mister, and mistress are often made shorter when used with a name. "Dr. Smith" is the name of a doctor whose last name is Smith, and "Mr. Banerjee" and "Mrs. Yang" are common ways of writing "Mister Banerjee" and "Mistress Yang". It is also used for names when the first and middle name are shortened but the last name is not, for example "J. Citizen".
When three periods are used together (...), they are called an ellipsis.
