Comma

How to spell comma

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce comma

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comma mean?

1. nounA punctuation mark used to indicate a slight pause or to separate items in a sentence or list.

Comma in a sentence

• She added a comma after the introductory phrase to ease the pause.

• The editor flagged a missing comma between the two clauses.

Where does comma come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek komma, which literally meant 'a piece cut off' or 'a segment', and was built on the verb koptein, meaning 'to cut' or 'to strike'. In Greek rhetoric a komma was a short clause, a small slice of a longer sentence, so the term named a unit of speech long before it named a printed mark. Latin borrowed the word as comma with the same sense of a clause or phrase, and from there it passed into English in the 1500s. As printing developed, the name shifted from the clause itself to the little hooked mark used to separate such clauses on the page. The doubled m comes straight from the Greek and Latin spelling, and remembering that the root is the 'cutting' word komma helps explain why both consonants are there.

How the word is built

• comm- (from Greek komma: a piece cut off, a clause)
• -a (Latin/Greek noun ending)