13 Rarely Used Punctuation Marks That Could Add Flair to Your Writing

Sometimes, traditional punctuation like periods, commas, colons, semicolons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses fall short. Here are a few additional marks you can incorporate into your regular communication to add some extra clarity or emphasis.

Interrobang

You’ve likely encountered the interrobang by now, thanks to its catchy name and rising popularity. While the combination of an exclamation point and a question mark can be swapped out for each punctuation mark individually, the interrobang combines both into one symbol. Martin Speckter, an advertising executive, came up with this punctuation mark in 1962. According to his obituary in The New York Times, Speckter described the interrobang as 'the typographical equivalent of a grimace or a shrug of the shoulders.' It was intended specifically for rhetorical situations, allowing writers to express disbelief. The name 'interrobang' comes from the Latin word interrogatio, meaning 'question,' and 'bang,' which is how printers refer to the exclamation mark.

Percontation Point or Rhetorical Question Mark

The backward question mark was introduced by printer Henry Denham in the 16th century as a way to punctuate rhetorical questions. According to Lynne Truss in her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, “it didn’t catch on.”

Irony Mark

As noted by Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters, British philosopher John Wilkins was the first to propose an irony mark, which he envisioned as an inverted exclamation point.

Next came Alcanter de Brahm, who introduced his own version of the irony mark (shown above) in the 19th century. De Brahm described it as taking “the form of a whip.” Then, in 1966, French author Hervé Bazin proposed his own version of the irony mark, which resembled an exclamation point with a lowercase u running through it [PDF], in his book Plumons l’Oiseau, alongside five other new punctuation marks.

Love Point

Among the new punctuation marks proposed by Bazin was the love point. It consisted of two mirrored question marks that formed a heart, sharing a common point. The idea behind it was to signify a statement of affection or love, as in 'Happy anniversary [love point]' or 'I have warm fuzzies [love point].'

Acclamation Point

Bazin described this mark as 'the stylistic representation of those two little flags that float above the tour bus when a president comes to town.' Acclamation means 'a loud shout or other demonstration of welcome, goodwill, or approval,' so it could be used to express excitement or joy, as in 'I’m so happy to see you [acclamation point]' or 'Viva Las Vegas [acclamation point].'

Certitude Point

Need to express something with absolute certainty? End your statement with the certitude point, another of Bazin’s creations, which features an exclamation point crossed by a line. As Phil Jamieson writes on Proofread Now’s GrammarPhile blog, “This punctuation would be a better choice than writing in all caps.”

Doubt Point

Another of Bazin’s creations, the doubt point—resembling a mix of the letter z and a question mark—is the opposite of the certitude point, and is used to end a sentence with an air of skepticism.

Authority Point

Bazin’s authority point 'shades your sentence' with a touch of expertise, 'like a parasol over a sultan.' ('Well, I was there and that's what happened [authority point].') It’s also used to convey an order or advice that demands to be taken seriously, originating from an authoritative voice.

Sadly, as Houston writes for the BBC, 'Bazin’s creations were doomed to fail from the start. Though his new symbols seemed familiar, they were crucially impossible to type on a typewriter. The author himself stopped using them after Plumons l’Oiseau, and the playful tone of the book discouraged other writers from adopting them. As a result, the love point, irony point, and others are now little more than curiosities.'

SarcMark

The SarcMark (short for sarcasm mark) looks like a swirl with a dot in the center. According to its website, 'Its creator, Douglas Sak, was writing an email to a friend and attempting to be sarcastic. It struck him that English, and perhaps other languages, lacked a punctuation mark to express sarcasm.' The SarcMark was created—and trademarked—in 2010. While it hasn’t gained widespread use, Saks markets it as 'the official, easy-to-use punctuation mark to highlight a sarcastic phrase, sentence, or message.' After all, half the fun of sarcasm is pointing it out [SarcMark].

Snark Mark

Like the SarcMark, the SnarkMark is used to indicate that a sentence should be interpreted beyond its literal meaning. However, unlike the SarcMark, the SnarkMark is copyright-free and simple to type: just a period followed by a tilde. It was created by typographer Choz Cunningham in 2007.

Asterism

According to Houston, the triangular trio of asterisks was “named for a constellation of stars and used as late as the 1850s to indicate ‘a note of considerable length, which has no reference.’”

Exclamation Comma and Question Comma

According to the Huffington Post, Leonard Storch, Ernst van Haagen, and Sigmund Silber introduced both the exclamation comma and the question comma in 1992. These marks feature an exclamation mark or a question mark, with a comma replacing the bottom point. The patent for these marks, which expired in 1995, states:

“By using two new punctuation marks, the question comma and the exclamation comma… the feelings of inquisitiveness and excitement can be expressed within written sentences, making it easier and clearer for readers to understand thoughts. These new punctuation marks serve the same function as a comma within a sentence, but with added emotion or curiosity. They give authors more freedom to punctuate, more closely mirroring spoken language. Additionally, these punctuation marks fit seamlessly into the existing structure, requiring little to no explanation.”

The patent concludes with an example of what a reader might “silently remark” when encountering these marks for the first time: “Clever [exclamation comma], funny—I’ve never seen one of those before.”

A version of this article was originally published in 2013 and has since been updated for 2024.