Punctuation Word Search

The names of the punctuation marks on one sheet with its answer key, and the marks themselves in the list.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

TRYPARENTHESESM

IBPYMDHCCJDSHAF

CSEMICOLONTTTAU

NRRHNHRLMNNDASH

OMIYTIMNMESVETM

STOWEEMBAHYPHEN

BPDBRYTEEYFPERD

RLBERIAPAFIOEIY

ADAPOSTROPHEISB

CAIEBRACKETSNKU

EXCLAMATIONEFKL

SWAUNDERSCOREVL

OORPGLNMXQATHIE

EWEOPTTILDEIFRT

HBTEDLIETYMFNPT

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

PeriodPERIOD
ExclamationEXCLAMATION
InterrobangINTERROBANG
CommaCOMMA
SemicolonSEMICOLON
DashDASH
HyphenHYPHEN
ApostropheAPOSTROPHE
ParenthesesPARENTHESES
BracketsBRACKETS
BracesBRACES
AsteriskASTERISK
CaretCARET
TildeTILDE
UnderscoreUNDERSCORE
BulletBULLET

16 of 20 words from the Punctuation Marks list.

Write one sentence that uses three of the marks you found.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Punctuation Word Search

TRYPARENTHESESM

IBPYMDHCCJDSHAF

CSEMICOLONTTTAU

NRRHNHRLMNNDASH

OMIYTIMNMESVETM

STOWEEMBAHYPHEN

BPDBRYTEEYFPERD

RLBERIAPAFIOEIY

ADAPOSTROPHEISB

CAIEBRACKETSNKU

EXCLAMATIONEFKL

SWAUNDERSCOREVL

OORPGLNMXQATHIE

EWEOPTTILDEIFRT

HBTEDLIETYMFNPT

PERIOD, EXCLAMATION, INTERROBANG, COMMA, SEMICOLON, DASH, HYPHEN, APOSTROPHE, PARENTHESES, BRACKETS, BRACES, ASTERISK, CARET, TILDE, UNDERSCORE, BULLET

Next step Choose the end mark for each sentence Make a puzzle from your own unit's terms

All 109 words

End Marks and Pauses 17

Abbreviation . A shortened word such as Dr. or St., often ended with a period.
Comma , It separates the parts of a sentence, and the items in a list of three or more.
Dash – A line longer than a hyphen that marks a break in a sentence.
Decimal point . The dot between the whole number and the fraction in 3.5.
Dot . What the period is nicknamed in a web address.
Ellipsis ... Three dots for words left out or a sentence that trails off.
Emphasis ! Extra force on a word or a warning, which this mark can show.
Eroteme ? A rare name for the mark that ends an asking sentence.
Exclamation ! A cry of surprise or strong feeling, and the first word in the name of this mark.
Full stop . The British name for the dot that ends a sentence.
Interrobang ‽ An asking mark and a shouting mark in one, first proposed in 1962.
Pause A short rest in reading. A comma or three dots can show one.
Period . The dot at the end of a statement, by its American name.
Query ? Another name for the mark that ends an asking sentence.
Question mark ? It ends a sentence that asks something.
Semicolon ; It links two closely related thoughts that could each be a sentence.
Statement A sentence that tells something. It most often ends with a period.

Show all 109 words (92 more)

Marks That Join and Introduce 17

Ampersand & The sign for "and". It began as the Latin word et written as one shape.
Apostrophe ' It shows a missing letter in don't and an owner in the dog's bowl.
Colon : Two dots, one over the other, before a list or an explanation.
Contraction Two words made into one, such as don't, with an apostrophe for the missing letters.
Em dash The longest of the family: one em wide. It sets off a remark in mid sentence.
En dash – The shorter of two long lines. It shows a span, as in pages 4–9.
Hyphen - The short mark that joins words, as in well-known, and splits syllables.
Introduce : To lead in. A colon does this for the list that follows it.
Join What a hyphen does to two words and a semicolon does to two thoughts.
List Eggs, milk, bread: items in a row, with commas between them.
Omission Letters or words left out. An apostrophe or three dots marks the gap.
Possession Owning. An apostrophe shows it in the eagle's feathers.
Range Pages 4–9 or 1990–2000: from one value to another, shown with a short dash.
Ratio : Two numbers compared, as in 3:1, with a colon between them.
Serial comma , The one before "and" in red, white, and blue.
Slash / A slanting line between two choices, as in and/or.
Syllable - A beat of a word. A hyphen splits a word between two of them.

Marks That Come in Pairs 22

Angle < > The shape in another name for chevrons.
Aside Extra words (like these) that a sentence could do without.
Braces { } The curly pair. In math they hold the members of a set.
Brackets [ ] The square pair, used around a word added to someone else's words.
Chevrons < > The angle pair, the earliest kind of bracket in written English.
Closing ) The second mark of two, also called the right one.
Curly { } The shape in another name for braces.
Dialogue "Hi," she said. The spoken words of a story, set inside quote marks.
Double " " The kind of quote mark with two strokes, the usual first choice in American writing.
Enclose To shut in on both sides, as brackets do to the words between them.
Guillemets « » Sideways double chevrons, used as quote marks in some languages but not in English.
Inverted commas ‘ ’ A name for quote marks: the opening one looks like a comma turned upside down.
Lunula ( ) Little moon: an old name for a round bracket, after its crescent shape.
Nested Set one inside another (like [this] pair).
Opening ( The first mark of two, also called the left one.
Pair ( ) Two marks that work together, one to open and one to close.
Parentheses ( ) Curved marks around extra words. British English calls them round brackets.
Quotation marks " " The pair around the exact words someone said or wrote.
Quote " Short for a quotation mark. They work in twos.
Round ( ) The shape in the British name for parentheses.
Single ' ' The kind of quote mark with one stroke. American writing uses it for a quote inside a quote.
Square [ ] The shape in the full name of these brackets.

Keyboard Symbols 23

Asterisk * A little star that most often points to a footnote.
At sign @ On old invoices it meant "at a rate of". Now it sits in every email address.
Backslash \ The mirror image of the usual slanting line, used mainly in computing.
Caret ^ Typed with Shift and 6. Its name is Latin for "it lacks".
Degree ° A small raised circle after a temperature or an angle.
Email @ A message whose address has this sign in the middle.
Hash # A short name for the number sign. Tags on social media are named after it.
Keyboard The rows of keys where these symbols are typed.
Logogram & A single sign that stands for a whole word, as this one does.
Low line _ Another name for the underscore.
Mark A sign written on a page. A comma is one, and so is a dot.
Number sign # It can stand for the word before a figure, as in #1.
Octothorpe # A name for the hash made up by telephone company workers by 1968.
Percent % Out of one hundred.
Pipe | A short name for the upright line.
Pound sign # A North American name for the hash, from its old use for pounds of weight.
Prime ′ A small stroke for feet and for minutes of arc, often swapped for an apostrophe.
Shift The key you hold with 6 to type a caret.
Star * How an asterisk is often said aloud.
Symbol A sign that stands for a word or an idea, as & stands for "and".
Tilde ~ A wavy line. On its own in English it mostly means "about".
Underscore _ A low line, first put on typewriters so that words could be underlined.
Vertical bar | An upright line with many names.

Printers' and Editors' Marks 30

Asterism Three asterisks set in a triangle, named after a group of stars.
Bang ! A printers' nickname for the mark that ends a shout.
Bullet • The dot in front of each item in a list.
Dagger † It marks a second footnote when the asterisk is already used.
Diesis ‡ The double dagger, which usually marks a third footnote.
Dinkus * * * Three spaced asterisks in a row that mark a break in a piece of writing.
Ditto mark " It means the words above are repeated.
Fleuron A printers' flower: a small leaf or flower shape used as an ornament.
Footnote * A note at the bottom of a page, which an asterisk or a dagger points to.
Glyph The drawn shape of a letter or a mark.
Hyphenation - The use of the short joining mark, or the splitting of a word at a line's end.
Indent A space at the start of the first line of a paragraph.
Interpunct · A dot at mid height. Classical Latin often used it between words.
Italic Slanted type. Underlining a word once told the printer to set it this way.
Manicule A little pointing hand that draws the reader's eye to part of a page.
Obelus ÷ † An old editors' mark whose modern forms are the division sign and the dagger.
Oblique / What the slash was generally called in the 1700s.
Paragraph ¶ A block of sentences on one idea, which the pilcrow marks.
Pilcrow ¶ The sign editors use to show where a new block of text starts.
Point . Another word for a dot. The full kind ends a sentence.
Proofread To read a page for mistakes in spelling and punctuation before it is printed.
Punctuation . , ; : ? ! The marks that divide writing into sentences and parts.
Section sign § Like one S on top of another. It points to a numbered part of a document.
Silcrow § A nickname for the sign that looks like two letters S.
Solidus / A name for the slash from its days as the sign for a shilling.
Space The gap between words. Writers of Latin once put a raised dot there.
Stop . In British English the full one ends a sentence.
Stroke / The common British name for the slash.
Typography The art of setting letters, marks and spaces in print.
Virgule / The medieval slash, named from the Latin for "twig".

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The marks, their names and what each is used for were checked on 2026-10-09 against English Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/, in the articles English punctuation, Bracket, Dash, Slash, Number sign and Quotation mark and in the article of each mark. Spellings were checked on 2026-10-09 in English Wiktionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/. Licence: own work

How it works

This punctuation word search hides the names of 16 marks, among them Comma, Apostrophe, Semicolon, Hyphen, Parentheses, Brackets and Interrobang. Further down the page, the word list prints the mark beside its name: ; beside Semicolon, & beside Ampersand.

Read the full guide

Five lists, from end marks to printers' marks

Start from a list has End Marks and Pauses (Period, Question mark, Full stop), Marks That Join and Introduce (Colon, En dash, Serial comma), Marks That Come in Pairs (Brackets, Braces, Quotation marks), Keyboard Symbols (Asterisk, Tilde, At sign) and Printers' and Editors' Marks (Pilcrow, Dagger, Virgule).

See the mark, find its name

Tick Show clues, not words and the sheet lists each mark with what it does. Pupils read "; It links two closely related thoughts that could each be a sentence" and hunt for Semicolon.

Question mark, Quotation marks and 13 more two-word entries hide closed up: QUESTIONMARK.
Short Punctuation Words keeps to five letters or fewer: Comma, Colon, Dash, Dot, Slash, Tilde.
The sheet ends with a task: write one sentence that uses three of the marks you found.

Questions and answers

What are the punctuation marks in English?

Wikipedia's English punctuation article covers thirteen: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, hyphen, ellipsis, exclamation mark, period, question mark, quotation marks, semicolon and slash. All thirteen are on this page, the exclamation mark under Exclamation.

What is the difference between a hyphen and a dash?

A hyphen joins words, as in well-known, and splits a word between syllables. A dash is longer and marks a break in a sentence. The en dash also shows a span, as in pages 4–9.

Are parentheses and brackets the same thing?

In American English parentheses are the round pair ( ) and brackets the square pair [ ]. British English calls the round pair brackets or round brackets. Braces are the curly pair { }, and chevrons the angle pair.

What is the # symbol called?

Number sign, hash or pound sign. In the United States and Canada a phone's # key is the pound key; in the United Kingdom and Australia the sign is a hash. Octothorpe was coined at a telephone laboratory. All four are in Keyboard Symbols.

What is an interrobang?

One mark, ‽, that does the work of a question mark and an exclamation mark together. It was first proposed in 1962. Printers call the exclamation mark a bang, which is where the name ends.

All 109 words

End Marks and Pauses 17

Marks That Join and Introduce 17

Marks That Come in Pairs 22

Keyboard Symbols 23

Printers' and Editors' Marks 30

How it works

Five lists, from end marks to printers' marks

See the mark, find its name

Questions and answers

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