The interrobang (/ɪn'tɛrəbæŋ/) (‽) is a rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the interrogative point) and the exclamation mark (known in printers' jargon as the bang). The typographical character is a superimposition of those two marks. The same effect is also frequently achieved by using both, e.g., "How could you do such a thing!?" or "How could you do such a thing?!" Image File history File links Interrobang. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The term punctuation has two different linguistic meanings: in general, the act and the effect of punctuating, i. ... ? redirects here. ... an exclamation mark An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, !, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. ... A specimen of roman typefaces by William Caslon Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and arranging type. ...

Application

A sentence ending with an interrobang either (1) asks a question in an excited manner, (2) expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or (3) asks a rhetorical question. In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ...

For example:

• How much did you spend on those shoes‽
• You're going out with who‽
• They did what‽

History

Multiple punctuation marks

Many writers, especially in informal writing, have used multiple punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing surprise and question.

What the...?! Neves, Called Dead in Fall, Denies It (headline from San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1936)

The question mark frequently comes first^{[citation needed]} (to emphasize that it is a question), although there is no universal style rule on the subject. This order has an advantage of being unambiguous in certain circumstances, such as when dealing with numbers or other mathematical terms, the exclamation mark being used in mathematics to refer to a factorial. For example, the sentence "What is 5!?" in mathematics could be interpreted as a question asking the value of the factorial of five. The San Francisco Examiner is a daily newspaper in San Francisco, California, where it has been published continuously since the late 19th Century. ... is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... For factorial rings in mathematics, see unique factorisation domain. ...

It is not uncommon for writers in very informal situations to use several question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis:

He did what?!?!?!

Like multiple exclamation marks and multiple question marks, such strings are generally considered very poor style in formal writing.^[1]

It is important to note that writers had combined question marks and exclamation points (along with using multiple punctuation marks) for decades before the interrobang was invented. In particular, they were prevalent in informal media such as print advertisements and comic books.^{[citation needed]} They are also currently used in algebraic chess notation with "!?" showing an interesting move that may not be the best, and "?!" showing a dubious move that may nevertheless be difficult to refute. // Advert redirects here. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Chessboard notation Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. ...

Invention of the interrobang

American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for "a rhetorical question" or "cross-examination";^[2] bang is printers' slang for the exclamation point. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.^[3] Martin Speckter is the inventor of the interrobang, a punctuation mark that combines the uses of the exclamation point and the question mark. ... An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. ... A copywriter is a person who writes text, or copy, for clients. ... A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than to receive an answer. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Latins and Latin (disambiguation). ... A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than to receive an answer. ... In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by ones opponent. ... The word printer is used to describe a company that provides commercial printing services, involving typesetting, printing and book-binding. ... For other uses, see Slang (disambiguation). ... Graphics are often utilitarian and anonymous,[1] as these pictographs from the US National Park Service illustrate. ...

In 1966, Richard Isbell of American Type Founders issued the Americana typeface and included the interrobang as one of the characters. In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. During the 1970s, it was possible to buy replacement interrobang keycaps and strikers for some Smith-Corona typewriters. The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s, with the word 'interrobang' appearing in some dictionaries and the mark itself being featured in magazine and newspaper articles.^[3] American Type Founders (ATF) was the dominant American manufacturer of metal type from its creation in 1892 as the merger of 23 type foundries for several decades. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ... For other uses, see Dictionary (disambiguation). ...

The interrobang failed to amount to much more than a fad, however. It has not become a standard punctuation mark. Although most fonts do not include the interrobang, it has not disappeared: Microsoft provides several versions of the interrobang character as part of the Wingdings 2 character set ( on the }/] and the ~/` keys) available with Microsoft Office.^[4] It was accepted into Unicode and is present in several fonts, including Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, and Calibri, the default font in the new Office 2007 suite. ^[5] Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Wingdings 2 is a TrueType dingbat font distributed together with Microsoft Office. ... Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... In digital typography, 's Lucida Sans Unicode OpenType font is designed to support the most commonly used characters defined in version 2. ... In digital typography, Arial Unicode MS is an extended version of the OpenType font Arial. ... An example of Calibri Regular, Bold and Italic Calibri is a humanist sans-serif typeface family, best known as the new default typeface for the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications. ... 2007 Microsoft Office system, also known as Microsoft Office 2007, is Microsofts next release of its productivity suite, slated to replace Microsoft Office 2003. ...

The French equivalent is "point exclarrogatif", expressing a similar idea - the fusion between "point d'interrogation" (?) and "point d'exclamation" (!).

The inverted interrobang

A reverse and upside down interrobang (combining ¿ and ¡, Unicode character: ⸘), suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Asturian, and Galician, is called by some a gnaborretni (interrobang backwards). Unicode encodes this character at the code point U+2E18. In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is usually achieved by including both sets of punctuation marks one inside the other (¿¡Verdad!? or ¡¿Verdad?!)^[6]. Older usage, still official but not widespread, recommended mixing the punctuation marks: ¡Verdad? or ¿Verdad! Asturian, Leonese, Astur-Leonese or Bable (Asturianu in Asturian, Llïonés in Leonese) is a Romance language spoken in some parts of the provinces of Asturias, León, Zamora and Salamanca in Spain, and in the area of Miranda de Douro in Portugal (where it is officially recognized as... Galician (Galician: galego, IPA: ) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of historic nationality, located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ...

Display

The interrobang is not a standard punctuation mark. Few modern typefaces or fonts include a glyph for the interrobang character. It is at Unicode code point U+203D. It can be used in HTML documents with ‽ or ‽, although the second form has poor support in common web browsers. The Interrobang can be used in some word processors with the alt code ALT+8253 when working in a font that supports the interrobang, or using an operating system that performs font substitution. “Font” redirects here. ... variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ... An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... Font substitution is the process of using one font in place of another when the intended font either is not available or does not contain glyphs for the required characters. ...

The interrobang can be displayed in LaTeX by using the package textcomp and the command textinterrobang. The inverted interrobang is also provided for in the textcomp package through the command textinterrobangdown. This article is about the typesetting system. ...

Depending on the browser and which fonts the user has installed, some of these may be displayed.

Image	Default font	Fixed	Palatino Linotype	Calibri	Arial Unicode MS	Code2000	Unicode
	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽

fixed is a monospace bitmap font of X Window System. ... Palatino is a serif typeface created by Hermann Zapf in 1948. ... An example of Calibri Regular, Bold and Italic Calibri is a humanist sans-serif typeface family, best known as the new default typeface for the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications. ... In digital typography, Arial Unicode MS is an extended version of the OpenType font Arial. ... Code2000 is a digital font which includes characters and symbols from a very large range of writing systems. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Interrobang (created in Photoshop) by User:Hephaestos; released into the public domain. ...

Uses in popular culture

• The interrobang appears in the logo for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
• Interrobang is the name of a column that frequently appears on Pitchfork Media, a website that covers independent music

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. ...

See also

• Irony mark

The irony mark or irony point (؟) (French: point d’ironie; also called a snark or zing) is a punctuation mark that purports to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. ...

References