An exclamation mark (also exclamation point, and (rarely) mark of admiration) is a punctuation mark. Like the full stop (or period), it marks the end of a sentence. A sentence ending in an exclamation mark is either an actual exclamation ("Wow!"), a command ("Stop!"), or is intended to be astonishing in some way ("They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"). Punctuation marks are written symbols that do not correspond to either phonemes (sounds) of a spoken language nor to lexemes (words and phrases) of a written language, but which serve to organize or clarify written language. ... A full stop or period, also called a full point, is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of several different types of sentences in English and several other languages. ... In linguistics, the sentence is a unit of language, characterised in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ... An exclamation is an excited utterance. ...

In typesetting or printing (and therefore when spelling text out orally), the exclamation mark is called a screamer or bang. Typesetting involves the presentation of textual material in an aesthetic form on paper or some other media. ... The folder of newspaper web offset printing press Printing is an industrial process for reproducing copies of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. ... Spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in the correct order. ...

For use of spaces after an exclamation mark, see the discussion for the full stop. A full stop or period, also called a full point, is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of several different types of sentences in English and several other languages. ...

Origins

The symbol is believed to originate from the Latin word io, an exclamation of joy. It was formed either as a digraph of the letters i and o, or as the letter i (for io) above a full stop. Latin is the language that was originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Natural languages

Frequent use of the exclamation mark is common in writing in advertising. Some brands cleverly, but confusingly, contain an exclamation mark (examples include the search engine Yahoo! and the game show Jeopardy!) Some comic books, especially superhero comics of the mid-20th century, routinely use the exclamation mark instead of the period. Overuse of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, since it distracts the reader and reduces the mark's meaning. Some authors however, most notably the American Tom Wolfe, are known for unashamedly liberal use of the exclamation mark. Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... This article is about brands in marketing. ... The success of the Google search engine was mainly due to its powerful PageRank algorithm and its simple, easy-to-use interface. ... ... A game show is a radio or television program involving members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. ... Jeopardy! logo (1994-1996) Jeopardy! is a popular international television game show, originally devised by Merv Griffin, who also created Wheel of Fortune. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... A superhero is a fictional character who is noted for feats of courage and nobility and who usually has a colorful name and costume and abilities beyond those of normal human beings. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Tom Wolfe (born March 2, 1931) is an American author and journalist. ...

The English town of Westward Ho!, named after the novel by Charles Kingsley, bears the only place name in the United Kingdom that officially contains an exclamation mark. There is a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, which officially contains two exclamation marks in its name. The titles of several musical comedies such as Oklahoma! and Oh! Calcutta! also contain exclamation marks. Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion... Westward Ho! is a sea-side town in Torridge, Devon, England, near Bideford. ... Charles Kingsley (July 12, 1819 - January 23, 1875) was an English novelist, particularly associated with the West Country. ... ... Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! is a parish (a small town) of Quebec, Canada, located near the St. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theater combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... Oklahoma! (1943) was the first musical play written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, working together. ... Oh! Calcutta! was a long-running theatrical revue, debuting off-Broadway in 1969, created by British critic Kenneth Tynan. ...

The exclamation mark is also used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

In some languages, such as Spanish, a sentence or clause ending in an exclamation mark must also begin with an inverted exclamation mark (the same applies to the question mark, too): A question mark is a punctuation mark. ...

¿Estás loco? ¡La mataste!

In Khoi, Bushmen, and the International Phonetic Alphabet, the exclamation mark is used as a letter to indicate the retroflex "click" sound represented as q in Zulu orthography. In Unicode this letter is properly coded as U+01C3 (ǃ) and distinguished from the common punctuation symbol U+0021 (!) to allow software to deal properly with word breaks. The Khoikhoi (men of men) or Khoi are a division of the Khoisan ethnic group of south-western Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (San). ... The Bushmen or San peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) the human vocal apparatus can produce. ... retroflex plosive Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Clicks are stops produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. ... The Zulu are an African ethnic group of about 11 million people who live mainly in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ... In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ...

There is a punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation mark in English called interrobang, which resembles those marks superimposed over one another ("‽") but the sequence of "?!" is used more often. A question mark is a punctuation mark. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The interrobang is an English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point. ...

Warnings

Warning signs are often an exclamation mark enclosed within a triangle

Exclamation marks are used to emphasize a warning.

On warning signs, an exclamation mark is often used to draw attention to a warning of danger, hazards and the unexpected. These signs are common in hazardous environments or on potentially dangerous equipment. A common type of this warning is a yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark, but a white triangle with a red border is common on European road warning signs. A traffic warning sign is a type of traffic sign that indicates a hazard ahead on the road. ...

Fan fiction

In fan fiction, "!" is used to signify a defining quality in a character, as in romantic!Draco from Harry Potter fandom. Almost always the character in question is a canon character, and most often the quality is one that is unusual, or non-canon. Occasionally, the "!" notation will describe a physical appearance thought to trigger certain reactions, as in shirtless!Vaughn from Alias. The origin of this usage is unknown, although it is hypothesized to have originated with certain Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, for example, "Football Player!Leonardo", "Rockstar!Raphael", and "Breakdancer!Michaelangelo". Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. ... The Harry Potter fandom is an international, informal community drawn together by the Harry Potter series. ... Canon can mean: A rule adopted by an ecumenical council of the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. ... Michaelangelo toy The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, debuted in the world of American comics. ... An action figure is a posable plastic figurine of an action hero, superhero or a character from a movie or television program. ...

Mathematics

In mathematics the symbol represents the factorial operation. n! means "the product of the integers from 1 to n". For example, 4! (read four factorial) is 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24. (0! is defined as 1, which is a neutral element in multiplication, not multiplied by anything.) Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Mathematics Bogomolny, Alexander: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. ... In mathematics, the factorial of a natural number n is the product of the positive integers less than or equal to n. ... In mathematics, an identity element (or neutral element) is a special type of element of a set with respect to a binary operation on that set. ... In its simplest form, multiplication is a quick way of adding identical numbers. ...

Computers

A computer warning message (example).

In computer programming, the exclamation mark corresponds to Unicode and ASCII character 33, or 0x0021. Example picture of a dialog box #2 This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Example picture of a dialog box #2 This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal or simply hex is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...

Several computer languages use "!" for a various meanings, most importantly, logical negation, e.g. A ! = B means "A is not equal to B". In this context, the exclamation is named the bang character; other programmers call it a shriek. Invented in the US, it is claimed that the first term is from Unix and the second from Stanford or MIT. In the BBC BASIC programming language it is called a pling and is used to reference a 32-bit word (see also: Shebang). BBC BASIC was developed in 1981 as a native programming language for the MOS Technology 6502 based Acorn BBC Micro home/personal computer, mainly by Roger Wilson. ... In computing, a shebang is a special line that begins an executable text file (commonly called a script) causing Unix-like operating systems to execute the commands in the text file using a specific interpreter (program). ...

In the Geek Code, "!" is used before a letter to denote that the geek refuses to participate in the topic at hand. The Geek Code is a series of letters and symbols used by self-described geeks to inform fellow geeks about their personality, appearance, interests, and opinions. ...

When computer programs display messages that alert the user, an exclamation mark may be shown alongside it to indicate that the message is important and should be read. This often happens when an error is made, or when the computer may do an unsafe operation, such as deleting a file.

Comics

In comics, a large exclamation mark is often used in the proximity of a character's head to indicate surprise. Comics, (sometimes spelled comix), use a combination of words and images as a medium for telling stories. ...

Chess

In chess notation "!" denotes a good move and "!!" an excellent move. For details see punctuation (chess). Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ... When annotating chess games, question marks and exclamation marks are frequently used by annotators commenting on the game to label a move as bad or praise the move as a good one. ...